Indigenous Tribes Recorded Visits from Ancient Astronauts

By Leonardo Vintini, Epoch Times

Every year the Amazonian Kayapo tribe celebrates the arrival of the mysterious Bep-Kororoti, or “he who comes from the cosmos,” said to have visited long ago. (EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images )

“The warrior from the cosmos seemed to take pleasure in seeing the fragility of these people. Intent on giving them a demonstration of his power, he raised his ‘thunder weapon’ and, pointing successively to a tree and then a rock, destroyed them both. All understood that Bep-Kororoti wished to demonstrate to them that he had not come to make war.”—Ancient Amazonian Legend

We’ve watched the world evolve from the simple to the complex, from stone tools to the technology of today. Yet dozens of stories from native cultures seem to complicate this narrative that we’ve come to believe as truth. Tales of enormous megaliths and ancient outer space visitors have come from every corner of the planet.

 

Bep-Kororoti: the Astronaut Who Visited the Amazon

Yet as these cults surged on the small islands of the Pacific, they were far from being the only examples of primitive tribes exhibiting deep adoration for foreign visitors. In fact, the cargo-cult phenomenon may well have originated with the Amazonian Kayapo tribe. As one tribal member dons a wicker outfit shaped like a modern space suit, the Kayapo annually celebrate the arrival of the mysterious Bep-Kororoti, or “he who comes from the cosmos.”

According to tribal leaders, the strange man came forth from the Pukato-Ti mountain range, at first arousing fear but rapidly developing a messianic status among the natives. According to ancient tribal legend, the people of the village gradually became swept up in an attraction toward the foreigner, due both to his beauty—the white resplendence of his skin—and his benevolence toward all. They recount that this mysterious visitor was more intelligent than any among them, and in time he taught them valuable skills.

The legend describes one day when Bep-Kororoti exploded in an attack of madness, screaming and forbidding members of the tribe to approach him. It was then that the tribe witnessed, at the foot of a mountain, how the stranger was said to escape toward the heavens in a tremendous explosion that shook everything around. The story recounts Bep-Kororoti disappearing into clouds of flame, smoke, and thunder. With the explosion, the earth moved to such a degree that even plants were uprooted. The jungle was destroyed, the animals disappeared, and the tribe experienced a great hunger.

Ethnologist Joao Americo Peret, who had interviewed the elders of the aboriginal community in 1952, affirmed that the story of Bep-Kororoti stretched far into the distant past. If the cargo cult came forth around an actual being, modern investigators wondered what kind of person would visit the jungle of Mato Grosso in such a remote period, with a space suit and a variety of magic capable, as the Kayapo say, of knocking down an animal with a mere touch.

Certainly, Bep-Kororoti did not fit the type of humanitarian-minded North American soldier that the Tanna of Vanuatu continued to adore. Perhaps even more bizarre, when the history of the Kayapos was first spread, the space-suit design that had become part of the memorial ceremony for Bep-Kororoti did not yet exist in any space agency in the world.

Furthermore, the detail of the astronaut’s departure “among clouds of smoke, light, and thunder” brings to mind the behavior of a modern jet engine. The mechanism of propulsion, according to legend, was commanded by what the aborigines took to be branches, and the ship, camouflaged in a tree. The legend recalls that the man from the cosmos went back to sit down in that special tree and moved the branches until it touched the ground. And another time, he produced an explosion and the tree disappeared into the air.

The Dogon: Tribe With Extraterrestrial Knowledge

Perhaps the most intriguing manifestation of this cargo-cult phenomenon is exhibited by the Dogon tribe, found in the West African nation of Mali. Although they do not afford the same fanfare to their foreign visitor as the examples above, the knowledge they received is nothing short of miraculous.

In 1947, after having lived with the Dogon for more than 17 years, French anthropologist Marcel Griaule was offered an amazing story. Tribal elders revealed to Griaule one of their most closely guarded secrets, unknown even to the majority of the community.

The leaders related how the Nommo, a half-fish half-human species, had founded a civilization on Earth. Despite their primitive culture, the Dogon elders received a profound understanding of the solar system from the mysterious Nommo. The elders recounted the existence of Jupiter’s four moons, the rings of Saturn, and the knowledge that the Milky Way had a spiral form. They were said to know even the sterility of the lunar environment and possessed an understanding that planets moved around the sun.

The most striking knowledge the Dogon retained from the Nommo ages ago was in regard to the orbits, sizes, and densities of the stars in the Sirius system. The Dogon accurately confirmed Sirius A, B, and C, and possessed knowledge of these stars that science has only recently been able to recognize.

Sirius C remained undiscovered until 1995, when astronomers noticed the influence it exerted on the movement of the whole system. Yet for hundreds of years, the primitive Dogon had not only known of its existence but also understood it in great detail.

How should we understand the story of the Dogon, as well as the myriad other cultures around the world that tell of contact with ancient astronauts?

Many may insist, as some scientists have, that the primitive Dogon must have had more recent contact with an astronomer who passed on these detailed explanations and simply added this knowledge into their age-old fairy tale. But does such an explanation serve in the interest of discovering the truth, or is it simply protecting our own culture’s fairy tale—that we live in the most technically advanced society the world has ever known?

Ancient Galactic Show in the Sky: Planets Fire Lightning Bolts

By Leonardo Vintini, Epoch Times

Were these recurring petroglyph patterns a familiar sight to ancient skies?

Given expression throughout history among countless civilizations around the world, the human image, rendered in a few simple lines, offers an unmistakable representation of a unique spectacle occurring in the ancient skies.

A Signal of the Gods

Suddenly, someone pointed toward the sky. The afternoon sky had become red, later white, and then an intense yellow. The great power of the firmament was both beautiful and terrifying, the most frightening that the group had ever seen. It was a beautiful and painful demonstration of human insignificance before the gods.

The grand sparkles stayed in the sky for a time, enough for the natives to engrave the scene on their granite canvases. The axis of energy charged across space, in its path letting loose gigantic streams of gas, some flying upward and other flying downward.

“…only a few thousand years ago the terrestrial sky was ablaze with electrical activity. The ramifications of this possibility will directly affect our understanding of cultural roots. What was the impact of the recorded events on the first civilizations? What was the relationship to the origins of world mythology, to the birth of the early religions, or to monumental construction in ancient times?” asks David Talbot and Wallace Thornhill in their book “Thunderbolts of the Gods.”

The true origin of the “squatter” or “stickman”—as the petroglyph is also known—is probably one of the enigmas most beloved by scientists who specialize in plasma physics. This graphic representation can be found and appreciated in the archaeological legacies of dozens of ancient cultures around the world—cultures with no apparent connection or contact—prompting many intrepid scientists to consider the “squatter” more as an event of magnificent proportions common to different cultures, rather than a vague and repetitive representation of human anatomy.

A New Theory for an Old Universe

Even so, the squatter does not represent the point of origin for this fantastic theory.  It is but a lucky piece of evidence found among the great current of vanguard thought known as “The Electric Universe.”

Proponents of the Electric Universe (such as is titled the work of Donald Scott, one of the pioneers of the idea) maintain that plasma, an energetic state of matter, is the substance and force that both fills and governs the totality of nearly all elements existing in the universe. Confronting such an idea may make possible radically new explications of familiar theories such as the Big Bang, dark matter, and Einstein’s general relativity, among others.

But when proponents of the Electric Universe theory hold that plasma—recognized as the fourth state of matter and a substance filling 99.9 percent of the known universe—is responsible for planetary attraction instead of gravity, the idea is often dismissed or even ridiculed by conservative scientists.

What’s certain is that the behavior of electricity between the warm gases and giant magnetic fields of the stars is an area that currently lacks the necessary study to either validate or refute this curious theory. To study such fields could indicate a new understanding of these phenomena, such as the energy of gamma rays, the acceleration of the expansion of the cosmos, and the tremendous discharges of energy which were said to have occurred once long ago, in the skies of remote times.

A Question of Electricity

The behavior of electricity in warm gases at cosmic magnitudes is still a discipline in its infancy. Yet this understanding applied to different electromagnetic fields may provide an idea of how a spatial discharge could take on a quasi-human form in ancient times.

The gigantic “electric” ray of plasma would resemble a human torso represented in the figure of the “squatter,” and the discs of energy traversing the axis of the body would be spread far, like waves going in opposite directions, giving the look of arms and legs. The profile view of a third element, a central “thread” that circles the body, would appear like two points condensing toward both sides of the figure, completing the most common representation of the picture.

In this way, the repulsion among the discs together with the axis of electricity would have given place to one of the most spectacular visions that ancient humanity could have had the joy of appreciating: a great being with open arms and arched legs.

According to graphic vestiges, the figure of the squatter could be appreciated from all points of the globe. Its form appears recorded in cultures of Arizona, Armenia, New Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Italy, the Alps, the Middle East, and China among others.

Popular Negation, the Stigma of New Theories

But the squatter may not be the only unique celestial spectacle presented to the ancient world. Different patterns repeated in petroglyphs across the entire planet could be taken to note nebulas or abysmal explosions.

For years, scientists have only recognized the sun, the moon, and other direct representations found in the cultural ancestry as vivid observations of the celestial vault, chalking up images of gods, humans, and animals to imaginary aggregates of the artists. But many modern archeologists, like Anthony Peratt, have started to validate these “intrusions” in ancient mythology as substantial facts of existence.

In the same way that the idea of a flat Earth was replaced by the round globe reality we know today, as geocentrism was displaced for heliocentrism and as the theory of relativity ousted years of Newtonian ideology, the Electric Universe threatens to produce a total upheaval of all modern theories of the cosmos.

Frequently discredited, the pioneers of this new science may not be far from running into the same luck as Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, who were only granted their due after years of neglect and derision.

For more information:
http://members.cox.net/dascott3/index.htm
http://www.the-electric-universe.info/welcome.html
http://www.catastrophism.com/texts/electricity-in-space/
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-6-1/29185.html
http://www.thunderbolts.info/

Huge Ancient Underground Cities in Turkey

Turkey's beautiful city of Cappadocia is famous for its enchanting countryside and mysterious "fairy chimney" micro mountains. These spire-like rock formations were probably created by ancient volcanic activity and, out of their soft stone, people carved out cave dwellings. 

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In recent times, the ones on the surface were converted into romantic hotels for tourists. However, in 1963 while one homeowner was remodeling his basement, he broke through his a wall into an unknown and tunnel system! To his surprise, he made a huge discovery of the underground city of Derinkuyu. 

DERINKUYU: Functioning Underground City

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Upon further exploration by professionals, they made these observations:

• capacity for 20,000 people
• 18 levels, sealable with 1,000-lb. stones
• 600 entrances to the surface
• waterways
• food storage
• stables
• kitchens
• churches
• tombs
• communal rooms
• schools

NEVSEHIR: Even Bigger Underground City

If you think Derinkuyu was impressive, wait until you hear this. In 2013, when a low-income house was demolished by a developer. Workers discovered tunnels leading under a Byzantine-era castle in the city of Nevsehir. Geophysicists from Nevsehir University used seismic tomography and geophysical resistivity technology to map and date the caves and artifacts.

They measured it to be 5 million square feet of rooms and passageways, making it the largest ancient underground city in the world.

It contained the same kinds of rooms as those in Derinkuyu but almost twice as many. Scientists estimate these rooms were carved out during the 7th and 8th centuries during the Byzantine period and Ottoman empire. They found grindstones, pottery, linseed presses to get oil for lighting lamps, and much more. 

Despite these studies, some people still wonder about the ancient origins of these mysterious underground cities. What would prompt people to develop them? Was there some great catastrophe? And exactly how did they design and excavate these elaborate tunnel systems?

Researchers suggest Christians escaping religious persecution dug these and hid here, but this is debatable. Now, archaeologists keep finding new artifacts as they explore deeper. There are plans to reopen the underground churches as a tourist attraction and to share this discovery with the world. Sometimes the truth is hidden right beneath our feet. 

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SOURCES:

https://www.gaia.com/article/derinkuyu-and-nevsehir-turkeys-ancient-underground-cities

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4032200/Photos-underground-18-storey-city-Turkey-reveal-hidden-rooms-house-20-000-people.html

The Legendary Sunken Continent of the Kumari Kandam

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We’ve all heard many stories about the Atlantis, the mythical city that the ancient Greeks wrote about in their literature. They were said to be an enlightened and advanced civilization for their time. It was also believed that the whole city met a tragic end, with the ocean consuming it whole and erasing remnants of its people’s culture and legacy from existence.

No one knows for sure whether or not the Atlanteans truly existed as a thriving civilization at some point in our ancient past and if the land they inhabited really had been swallowed by the ocean. And until now, people are still fighting over this issue heatedly, with neither side having any intention of standing down. But did you know that that the tale of the lost city of Atlantis is not the only story involving a sunken land and advanced ancient civilization?

A similar tale has been told in India although it is definitely the less popular one compared to the myth of Atlantis. This lesser-known legend of another lost continent is known as the Kumari Kandam, which is what we will be talking about in this video.

The Legendary Sunken Continent of the Kumari Kandam

The Kumari Kandam is a supposed to be a lost continent located south of modern-day India that occupied a large portion of the Indian Ocean. Also referred to as Kumarikkantam and Kumari Nadu, this massive landmass below the Indian subcontinent is believed to be the home of an ancient Tamil civilization before a catastrophe resulted to its submersion in the deep sea. 

The Tamil people are a Dravidian ethnic group whose ancestry can be traced back to Tamil Nadu of India and Sri Lanka. Tens of millions of individuals today identify as Tamilans, making them not only one of the oldest but also largest existing ethno-linguistic cultural groups today. Some of these Tamilans say that the missing Tamil continent of Kumari Kandam is what used to connect the continent of Africa and the landmass of south India. And for the last two centuries, they have declared that this legendary continent is also the hypothesized “lost land” of Lemuria which was developed in the 1890s by Western scholars.

The Hypothesized Submerged Continent of Lumeria

Several scholars in the United States and Europe during the latter part of the 19th century were puzzled by the geological similarities between India, Madagascar, and Africa. English geologist Philip Sclater pondered over the possible reason why there is a significant presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India but not in the Middle East or mainland Africa. Sclater went on to publish an article in 1864, titled “The Mammals of Madagascar,” in which he proposed a hypothesis suggesting that Madagascar and India used to be a part of a larger landmass he called “Lemuria.”

Sclater’s Lemuria hypothesis was initially welcomed by members of the scientific community as an acceptable explanation to the way lemurs could have migrated in Madagascar and India in the distant past. However, the theory was eventually discarded after the continental drift theory became the widely-accepted theory in modern times. Nevertheless, the concept of a lost continent below southern India continued to remain popular until the 20th century, especially among the Tamil nationalists who believed Lemuria was the same lost continent they referred to as the Kumari Kandam.

Popularization of Lemuria in Tamil Nadu

According to the Tamil revivalists of the 20th century. Kumari Kandam was the land where the Pandiyan kings once reigned and where the first two Tamil literary academies known as “sangams” were established. And in the 1920s, these Tamil revivalists tried to reduce the domination of the Indo-Aryans and Sanskrit by claiming that prior to the disappearance of Lemuria, it was actually the long-lost Kumari Kandam - the original homeland of the Tamilans and the birthplace of their civilization, language and culture.

The Tamil nationalists did not simply regard the lost land of Kumari Kandam as the home of an ancient Tamil society, but as the cradle of human civilization. They described it as a utopic society where the continent’s enlightened citizens were dedicated to higher learning, trade and commerce, and exploration of the rest of the world. They had established an egalitarian and democratic government that allowed the economy to flourish and its people to thrive.

However, when the continent of Kumari Kandam was lost and the ocean swallowed it whole, the Tamil people had no choice but to migrate to different parts of the world where they established new civilizations.

Submerged Lands in Ancient Indian Literature

Various Tamil and Sanskrit literary works from ancient and medieval times contain legends about a land located south of India that was consumed by the ocean, a catastrophic event believed to have been caused by a tsunami or by a devastating flood. For example, a commentary in the Iraiyanar Akapporul - which is a written work on Tamil poetics from the medieval times - mentions the Pandiyan kings of the early Tamil dynasty and their effort to form three sangams that lasted for thousands of years. The commentary also reveals that two of these sangams were “seized” by the ocean, which ultimately led to the destruction and loss of many ancient writings.

It is important to note, however, that none of these ancient texts or medieval commentaries referred to this lost land that was seized by the sea as “Kumari Kandam.” And none of these literary works have also stated that Kumari Kandam was big enough to qualify as a continent. It turns out that the term “Kumari Kandam” first appeared in the 15-century Tamil version of the Hindu scripture Skanda Purana, and according to cultural historian Sumathi Ramaswamy, the Tamil nationalists used the word “Kumari” - which means “virgin” or maiden” - to symbolize their belief in the purity of the Tamilans’ language and culture prior to their association with the Indo-Aryans.

Criticisms of the Concept of Lemuria

Because the concept of Lemuria is largely recognized by mainstream scholars as a debunked hypothesis today, many experts have frowned upon the alleged attempts of Tamil writers to use the pseudo-scientific theory to validate unverifiable, alternative history. Some historians regard the Kumari Kandam as nothing more than mere fiction founded on mythology and not legitimate scientific research.

Moreover, according to geologists, even if the continental drift theory is set aside and the Lemurian continent did exist at some point in the past, its submersion or dismemberment would have taken place tens to hundreds of millions of years ago during the Mesozoic era. Hence, geological theories like the Lemurian hypothesis should not have anything to do with events in human history that supposedly occurred only a few thousand years ago.

In the end, it cannot be said with absolute certainty that the Kumari Kandam - the land lost to the ocean as described in ancient and medieval Tamil texts - is the same as the hypothesized size and location of the Lumerian continent. At best, we can say that there may be some truth behind such legends. By just how much, there is no way to tell just yet.

For now, this means that while we may be permitted to consider the possibility that the Tamil civilization had once lost a part of its former lands to an ocean-related catastrophe, we cannot claim that this lost land was as big as a continent. If this ancient Tamil landmass did exist in the past, its size can only be compared to that of a small city or a district in today’s standards, making its possible submersion in the sea a few thousand years ago a lot easier to believe.

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Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/lost-continent-kumari-kandam-001941?nopaging=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraiyanar_Akapporul
http://www.crystalinks.com/KumariKandam.html
http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/08/05/kumari-kandam-mythical-lost-virgin-continent-and-history-of-tamil-people-shrouded-in-mystery/
http://www.themysteriousindia.net/kumari-kandam-lost-continent/

10 Legendary and Mysterious Libraries of the Ancient World

It is often said that knowledge is wealth and in the ancient world it is something that is well guarded more than gold or jewels. The colossal libraries ancient civilizations like the Greeks and the Egyptians built are testaments to the fact that all the riches of the world will always pale in comparison with knowledge and learning.

These days, when information comes to us lightning-quick at the touch of a button, we tend to underestimate and undervalue the privilege we have of unfettered access to almost anything that we want to know and learn. It is a little bit tragic that the sense of appreciation that we have for information and learning is eclipsed by our continuously shortening attention spans because of all the media we consume on a daily basis.

In today’s list, we take a step back thousands of years to days when information and knowledge are stored and jealously guarded in giant libraries that are often the first monuments to be destroyed and sacked in times of war or invasion. Libraries that have shaped the world we now know of and the civilizations that have walked the earth, each contributing to humanity’s progress.

So here are 10 legendary and mysterious libraries of the ancient world!

Number Ten: The House of Wisdom

Called by historians as the Cradle of Civilization, ancient Mesopotamia – now modern day Iraq – was once one of the world’s centers for learning. Alongside Greece, Egypt, and Rome, Mesopotamia had one of the largest institutions of learning built in the 9 AD at the heart of the city of Baghdad.

Known as The House of Wisdom, it was built during the reign of the Abbasids. The House of Wisdom’s “collections” revolved around literature from Persia, Greece, and India. Also, among the library’s collection are manuscripts on mathematics, philosophy, science, medicine, and astronomy.

The books alone were enough to serve as lures to scholars from neighboring regions in the Middle East and among them are the mathematician and one of the fathers of Algebra, al-Khawarizmi; and the philosopher al-Kindi.

The House of Wisdom was the epicentre of Islamic intellectualism and academia for hundreds of years until it was sacked by the Mongols in 1258, tossing many of its extremely valuable manuscripts and books into the Tigris. Legend even has it that the famed river turned black due to ink dissolving into its waters.

Number Nine: The Twin Libraries at Trajan’s Forum

The ancient Romans are no strangers to accumulating codices and scrolls filled with anything from mathematics to philosophy. Knowledge and information are cornerstones of their empire that lasted centuries.

A Roman emperor’s love of monuments has helped erect one – or two – of the ancient world’s largest libraries.

Around 112 AD Emperor Trajan completed the construction of a wide, multi-use complex at the heart of Rome. Within the bounds of this Forum are plazas, markets, and temples. However, its crown jewel is one of the Roman Empire’s famous libraries.

Split in two, the twin structures housed numerous works and texts in Latin and Greek – separately housed – and were built on opposite sides of Trajan’s column, a massive monument to celebrate the emperor’s military victories.  Containing a collection of about 20,000 scrolls in rooms made of elegantly crafted marble and granite, historians are still debating when the twin libraries ceased to exist. With only texts referencing them until the fifth century AD, experts can only assume that it stood for at least three centuries.

Number Eight: Villa of the Papyri

One of the last ancient libraries to have survived well into the modern day, the Villa of the Papyri has withstood catastrophes including the devastating eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Located in Herculaneum, Italy, the ruins of the Villa was buried deep in the ashes of Vesuvius that miraculously kept at least 1,785 of its scrolls preserved when the library was unearthed by archaeologists in 1752.

Technically the Villa was a house and not a library by any definition. Supposedly owned by Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesonius, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, the massive home – aside from its impressive private library of texts on philosophy – boasted a collection of bronze sculptures and the most stylish and impressive architecture of that century.

Number Seven: The Library of Pergamum

Constructed by the Attalid Dynasty in the third century BC in what is now the country of Turkey, the Library of Pergamum was home to an impressive collection of 200,000 scrolls on varying subjects.

Located within a temple complex devoted to the Greek goddess Athena, the Library was considered to have become the “competition” of the Library of Alexandria according to the ancient chronicler, Pliny the Elder.

Apparently, both libraries sought to amass large collections of texts as well as establish rival schools of thought.

The rivalry between the two libraries allegedly reached fever pitch that Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt halted the exportation of papyrus to Pergamum hoping that it would cripple the library. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan and only turned the city of Pergamum as one of the leading producers of parchment paper.

Number Six: Nalanda University

Moving further south of Asia, the Nalanda University in Bahir, India, is considered to be oldest university in the entire world as the first European university only popped up in 1088, a whole six centuries later.

What is even more exceptional about Nalanda is that the university provided education to thousands of students all across Asia.

Its nine-storey library was nicknamed “Dharmaganja” or Treasury of Truth and “Dharma Gunj” or Mountain of Truth because it was highly praised for the largest collection of Buddhist texts among other writings and literature. Helping spread philosophy and the Buddhist faith, Nalanda has nurtured thousands of followers until it was destroyed by Turk invaders in 1193. Due to the university’s immense size, legend tells that it took the Turks months before they could completely reduce its foundations to rubble.

Number Five: The Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima

Before it was destroyed around 638 AD by invading Arabs, the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima or simply the Library of Caesarea, had the largest collection of ecclesiastical and theological texts of the Ancient Christian and Jewish world.

As the center of Christian education and scholarship, the library was also home to a large collection of literature from Greece and other neighboring regions. Mostly the texts are primarily historical and philosophical but nonetheless valuable as the place was frequently visited by important historical personalities such as Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazareth.

The church father Origen was mainly responsible for the library’s inventory of 30,000 manuscripts but during the purge initiated by Emperor Diocletian, the library and many of its contents were destroyed. Afterwards, it was rebuilt by the bishops of Caesarea only to be completely torn down, brick by brick, by Arab invaders.

Unfortunately, not a single manuscript from the library’s collection survived.

Number Four: The Library of Aristotle

Built in the first century BC, the library of Aristotle was part of a larger structure called the Lyceum where he was sought by many of his students and spent time learning from one of history’s most influential philosophers.

300 years after Aristotle’s death, a geographer named Strabo chronicled one of the most detailed accounts of the philosopher’s magnificent collection in his Geographia XIII, 1, 54-55, saying that Aristotle was “the first man, so far as I know, to have collected books and to have taught the kings in Egypt hwo to arrage a library.”

Upon Aristotle’s death, the Lyceum was bequeathed to Theoprastus. Even before his death, Aristotle heard of the jealousy of the Attalid empire of his library and desired to covet it for the Library of Pergamum. When Aristotle died and the Lyceum passed on to a new owner, it was then decided that the library’s entire collection be hidden and kept safe underground.

Unfortunately, despite this noble effort, many of the books were damaged by moisture and the remainder of the collection were sold to a man named Apellicon of Teos.

Number Three: The Imperial Library of Constantinople

Most of the history of the Imperial Library of Constantinople is shrouded in mystery. Many would point out that it was built out of necessity to preserve texts that were already in danger because of deterioration.

It was in 357 AD when Byzantine Emperor Constantius II decided to build the imperial library where many of the deteriorating Judeo-Christian scriptures could be copied onto vellum, a material that lasts longer than papyrus. Although Constantius II was only mostly interested in religious texts, the Imperial Library still managed to salvage many other books and scrolls that housed the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans.

In fact, many of the surviving texts from the ancient Grecian world that survives today were copies from the original manuscripts of the Imperial Library of Constantinople.

Number Two: The Library of Alexandria

Built by Ptolemy I in 295 BC, the Great Library of Alexandria holds a prestigious title in history as a “Universal” library where scholars from all over the world would visit, share ideas, and study from over thousands of texts that it offers.

It was, in fact, the intellectual crown jewel of the ancient world. Texts and scriptures on subjects like history, law, science, and mathematics can be browsed among its collection of 500,000 scrolls.

Many visiting scholars that decided to remain and live in the library complex received stipends from the Egyptian government just for conducting their studies and copying texts. Among its visitors were Euclid and Archimedes.

Its demise is still a question that seeks answers. Supposedly, the library burned down in 48 BC when Julius Caesar set fire to Alexandria’s harbor when he was at war with Ptolemy XIII. However, many historians believe that a blaze could not have easily destroyed the library and it may have still survived for a few more centuries. Some scholars, on the other hand, argue that the library met its end during the reign of Roman emperor Aurelian in 270 AD while other experts place its obliteration somewhere around the Fourth Century AD.

Whatever the case and however it fell, the Library of Alexandria remains to be one of history’s greatest achievements both architecturally and academically.

Number One: The Library of Ashurbanipal

Known as the world’s oldest library, it was built and founded for the “royal contemplation” of the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal in the 7th Century. Basically, it was one massive private study.

Constructed in Nineveh in modern-day Iraq, the library had a collection of around 30,000 stone tablets written in cuneiform. What’s even more impressive is that the tablets were organized according to subject matter. Most of them being archival documents of the royal court, the collection also included a number of literary works including the 4000-year old Epic of Gilgamesh.

Ashurbanipal was a known book-lover and obtained many of them through looting from conquered territories including Babylonia.

Today, most of the surviving tablets are housed and cared for in the British Museum in London.

While the Library of Ashurbanipal may not be as glamorous as the Library of Alexandria, it is most interesting to note that his collection helped pave the way to the history of the written word through cuneiform.

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Sources:

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-impressive-ancient-libraries
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/05/30/11-most-impressive-libraries-from-the-ancient-world/
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/10-magnificent-ancient-libraries-filled-with-knowledge/
http://listverse.com/2016/12/09/10-mysterious-libraries/

5 Ancient Technologies Way Ahead of Their Time

The ancient world is full of wonders that the modern age cannot compete with. The great civilizations, the larger than life monuments, and the fascinating stories told about an age gone by has been the subject of many movies, documentaries, and studies. Who could argue against the revolutionary system of the aqueducts that the Romans introduced that was the precursor to modern-day irrigation? Who could introduce something much better than the discoveries and theories posed by Aristotle that became the cornerstone of what we know today as the study of Physics?

While the modern age does have technology that brings information to us faster than lightning, we should not fail to remember that it was the ancient world that opened the doors to the advancements we have today.

Doors that, in some ways, are considered too advanced for a civilization that we believed to be quite Paleolithic compared to our century. Who would think that people in the ancient world would be able to invent an early concept of an aircraft thousands of years before the first Wright Brothers prototype left land?

#5 — The Baghdad Battery

Let’s start off with one of the most famous archeological finds on the subject. Discovered in the 1930s in a region called Khujut Rubu’a just outside Baghdad, the so-called “Baghdad Battery” was a wonder to behold considering that electricity and its uses would not have been discovered 2000 years after these batteries came into existence.

The batteries discovered consisted of a clay jar with an asphalt stopper. Through the center of the stopper ran an iron rod that was surrounded by a copper cylinder inside the jar. It is believed that if the jar was filled with an electrolytic solution like vinegar or lemon juice, the battery would be able to produce at least 1.1 volts of electricity.

A volt may not be enough to power a home or a machine that relied on electricity, but archeologists and historians believe that it may have been used for purposes of electroplating since artifacts with very thin layers of gold and silver have also been unearthed in digs; artifacts that may reinforce the notion that the batteries were ancient power tools.

On the other side of the spectrum, some experts disagree that the Baghdad Batteries are, in fact, “batteries” since they found no conclusive evidence as to where they might be used or what they might be used for.

Some scholars claim that the jars were more likely to be a sophisticated means of keeping scrolls and papyri and that the acidic residue found at the bottom of the clay jars were nothing more than decomposed scrolls and papyri. Whatever the claim, the Baghdad Batteries still confound and astound historians and archeologists to this very day.

#4 — Central Heating

The Greeks were pioneers on almost anything you can conceive of that helped build Western Civilization and among those was the technology for central heating. It may sound trivial and inconsequential when compared to the Grecian contributions in mathematics, science, and philosophy but the idea of such a technology is quite remarkable given that even the concept of it is something unheard of at that time.

Called by the ancient Greeks as hypocaust or “under burnt,” the technology was first employed in the Temple of Ephesus in 350 BC. Later on, the trend caught on, and it was the Romans who managed to apply it on a larger scale from their temples to the homes of the wealthy, to the public baths, and to government buildings.

The hypocaust was created by making a structure just beneath the floor of a building. This structure would consist of pillars that would raise the structure's floor. On top of these pillars would be tiles that are covered in a layer of concrete; above it is the floor of the building itself. A furnace would then be lit, and the combination of hot air and smoke would rise and be trapped in the space between the floors. To heat multiple levels of a building, the smoke would find its way through a series of clay flues that act as pipes. What’s even more ingenious about how the Romans used the hypocaust is they built bronze ventilators that could be used to regulate temperatures.

If this system sounds too labor intensive and expensive, it’s because it is. Slave laborers would have to constantly maintain the fire at just the right temperature and the right level of comfort for people in the building or home.

#3 — Antikythera Mechanism

Recovered in a shipwreck in 1901, the Antikythera Mechanism was among several other, heavily crusted artifacts salvaged from the sea. The Mechanism is of particular interest because of its more than complicated construction. 

Taking years of research by experts and studies about Babylonian records on eclipses, it was later confirmed that the Antikythera Mechanism was the world’s first computer.

The Mechanism features a fixed ring dial on its front face that is called the ecliptic or the twelve zodiac signs that are equally marked off on 30-degree sectors. This construction closely resembles the Babylonian method of assigning 1/12 of the elliptic to each sign despite the fact that constellation boundaries were quite variable.

Outside of the ring dial, the device uniquely features a rotating ring that marks the days and months of the Egyptian calendar.

The Antikythera Mechanism closely resembles a modern-day clock with a large circular front face and a knob on its side which manipulates winding parts. When the knob is turned, at least seven different clock hands – one for the moon, one for the sun, and five for the five planets that the Greeks were able to see - would move and display the celestial time. Not only did the device show which stars rose and set on a given date but also the phases of the moon.

It was an extremely complicated device, and even though its pieces have given clues and ideas of how it worked, experts can only guess how it was put together with its highly intricate system of gears inside.

#2 — Ancient Seismoscope

Earthquakes are one of nature’s most unpredictable forces, and scientists have been trying to crack the mystery of foreseeing an oncoming tremor with little results for nearly 2000 years. However, the answer to their quandary may well be in a device used by a man named Zhang Heng in 132 AD.

This ancient seismoscope was able to detect earthquakes from long distances, and it was also able to predict, with an almost pinpoint accuracy, which direction the tremors are. Even more remarkable is the fact that the device was able to detect earthquakes in areas even when no tremors are felt.

The construction of the device looked fairly simple and can be mistaken for a large vase or urn. It was made of bronze and was six feet in diameter. Around the body of the device were eight dragon heads, each marking the main directions of a compass; each dragon had a small ball clamped in its mouth. Sitting directly beneath the dragons were eight toads with their mouths open towards the dragons.

When a tremor happened, one dragon would drop its ball into the gaping toad indicating where the earthquake was. In one story in 138 AD, the seismoscope detected tremors west of Luoyang, but no one sensed the slightest movement there. A few days later, a messenger from the region brought news of an earthquake which proved the device’s accuracy to the people of the time.

To this day, there is no clear understanding of how Zhang Heng’s device worked. In 2005, a group of scientists recreated the device with supporting theories and discovered that it worked as well as modern seismometers; something that, no doubt, surprised them.

#1 — Ancient Flying Machines of Egypt and South America

There are two separate stories that suggest a mind-blowing conclusion: the ancient Egyptians and the early civilization of South America had flight technology that predates the machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and the Wright Brothers.

If we are going to talk about technology that is way ahead of its time, then planes and flying machines take the top spot on this list. For thousands of years, mankind has pondered on the idea of flying and how he may be able to do it one day. From Greek philosophers to stories like the tale of Daedalus and Icarus, the flight has been one of the things man has been obsessed with before the invention of the first aircraft. 

In South America, the idea that they may have had an early concept of a flying machine came in the form of the jewelry produced by the Chimu culture, now Colombia, 2000 years ago. In one design, a pendant was crafted in the shape of, what looks like, a modern-day aircraft with a cockpit, delta wings, and tail fins. However, considering that the Chimu took their design inspiration from birds, it is highly unlikely that they have created a machine but having such a design that echoes a modern-day aircraft does command a little bit of merit.

In Egypt, there is also a similar case. A wooden falcon was discovered after it was unearthed in Saqqara by an Egyptian doctor name Khalil Messiha. He claimed that the device had exceptional flight properties and characteristics. Unfortunately, Messiah's claims were exaggerated and over-inflated until the wooden toy was held as an example. As experts dug a little deeper, the wooden carving was discovered to resemble wind vanes used on masts of Egyptian riverboats. 

Though there still needs more light to be shed on this and whether or not these so-called machines are real or just the product of creativity, what is fascinating is that given some ancient technologies that have been unearthed over the years from ancient batteries to seismoscopes, a flying machine is not that far-fetched.

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Sources:
http://historycollection.co/ancient-technology-centuries-time/
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/10-remarkable-advanced-ancient-technologies-ahead-of-their-times/
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5554053/five-ancient-technologies-that-were-ahead-of-their-times

The Mystery of the Carpathian Sphinx

There are those among us who believe that at certain points in mankind’s forgotten past, there were once thriving ancient civilizations that disappeared from the face of the Earth for reasons unknown. And while this may be very hard to prove now, some think that remnants of these civilizations still linger in different parts of the world and that if we look hard enough, we will find more than sufficient evidence of an ancient legacy far advanced than our own today. 

An example of this supposed evidence can be found in the vicinity of a mysterious rock sculpture found on one of the great plateaus of the Carpathian Mountains of Europe. This stone formation bears a strong resemblance to the world-famous Great Sphinx of Egypt, and perhaps for this very reason, this remarkable rock figure is referred to as the Carpathian Sphinx. 

The Great Sphinx in the Carpathian Mountain Range

The Carpathian Sphinx also referred to as the Romanian Great Sphinx, is considered by conventional science as a natural rock formation found in Bucegi Natural Park in the Bucegi Mountains of Romania, which is also part of the much-larger Carpathian Mountain Range located across six countries in Europe. If you dare to measure it, you’ll find that the sphinx sits on a very high plateau, at an altitude of 7,270 feet or 2,216 meters. 

The Carpathian Sphinx has a height of 8 meters and width of 12 meters. As for its appearance, photographs have shown that from a certain angle, the stone formation looks like an otherworldly being which has a human head with discernible lips and even a chin. The figure also looks like it is wearing a cap and as if its gaze is focused at the sky above. It has also been said that the figure of the sphinx is seen best every 21st of November, around sunset. 

Aside from the Carpathian Sphinx, there are also other fascinating and equally intriguing rock formations and natural caves found in the Bucegi Mountains, which is probably why these mountains have been under the protection of Romanian authorities and are recognized as one of the country’s national parks. Given the various sights to see in this area, it is not at all surprising that the Bucegi Mountains, including the Carpathian Sphinx, are very popular natural tourist attractions in Romania.

The Mysterious Claims About the Carpathian Sphinx & The Bucegi Mountains

In recent years, however, the public’s interest in the Carpathian Sphinx and the Bucegi Mountains is not just limited to their scenic views, but also for various claims that go against our current established conventions and knowledge about our origins and our history. 

One of the most widely-suggested alternative theories is that the Carpathian Sphinx, along with the other rock formations found in these mountains, is actually evidence of extraterrestrial presence, if not an advance ancient civilization, on Earth. And to prevent the public from figuring out the truth that our planet was once home to an advanced and possibly alien civilization in our distant past, there is allegedly a grand scheme or conspiracy to safeguard this close-guarded secret from ever coming out. 

So… what is this big secret that various governments have agreed not to make public knowledge just yet? Well, there’s a theory that within the mountain that the Carpathian Sphinx stands on is a complex network of tunnels believed to be of ancient and even of extraterrestrial origin. This elaborate underground labyrinth purportedly leads to a variety of large rooms containing large tables and chairs as if they were made for people larger than modern-day humans. 

Even more peculiar are the allegations that these rooms contained advanced technology beyond what we are currently capable of, and that this mysterious underground facility was built around 50,000 years ago. 

2009 Book "Transylvania Sunrise" by Radu Cinamar & Peter Moon

From whom did these fascinating claims originate, and why did they start to gain ground in recent years?

Well, talk of an alien civilization having once lived within the Bucegi Mountains sparked with the publication of the book “Transylvanian Sunrise,” which was written by someone named Radu Cinamar and Peter Moon, and was published back in 2009. At the time of its release, this book pretty much “rocked the boat” of the paranormal research community with its declaration that a stunning discovery was supposedly made beneath the Carpathian Sphinx which could significantly alter our current knowledge about mankind’s history and our ancient ancestors.

The book posits that in the early 2000s, the Pentagon found an “anomaly” hidden under the Carpathian Sphinx and within the Bucegi Mountains using satellite technology. What they uncovered was apparently so vital that the Pentagon had to go through the top levels of Freemasonry to ally with “Department Zero” – a classified department of the Romanian Intelligence Service – to make sure that the truth never gets out. 

The story goes back in 2002 when the Pentagon was supposedly using its satellite for military surveillance and geodetic espionage, through which they found a structure inside the tall mountain where the Carpathian Sphinx was located. This hidden facility they detected was no ordinary cave or labyrinth, as the satellite scan showed that the mountain emitted two powerful energy blocks: one was connected to a wall which obstructs access to the tunnel, while another was located at the mountain’s center. The latter’s energy field was also much larger and was shaped like a hemisphere or a dome.

The stream of energy emanating from these two locations inside the mountain made it seem like something extraordinarily valuable is being guarded in this discovered structure. And so, naturally, they decided to investigate further and attempted to reach the tunnel inside the mountain, with the United States military supposedly providing the high-tech machine that would drill through the rocky surface. When they managed to reach the mysterious tunnel found by the Pentagon, they saw a huge stone gate at the end of it. However, before they could get to this gate, their access was impeded by an invisible energy field, which ended up automatically killing those who dared to touch it. 

During this thorough investigation of the area, some of what they found inside include large stone tables that project holographic images; advanced technology that can analyze DNA compatibility of different beings; a library that contains information on a collection of topics, including other intelligent races; and an oversized projection room that could show actual images of various events in mankind’s history. 

The Site of the Carpathian Sphinx as Evidence of an Advanced Ancient Alien Civilization

Compelling details like these make sci-fi thriller novels an interesting read and difficult to put down, which could be one of the reasons why many people dismiss Cinamar and Moon’s book as nothing more than a work of fiction. But for those who are willing to reserve passing judgment so quickly, is it possible that these shocking claims about the Carpathian Sphinx and the Bucegi Mountains could be more than just an elaborate and well-thought-out hoax?

The idea that there was this one-big global conspiracy to prevent disclosing new archaeological finds that could cast doubt on the majority of the things we have been told to hold true does seem to be a bit of an overreach, but it is not the only one to suggest that there is something special about the Bucegi Mountains. 

For example, several centuries ago, Herodotus wrote in the fourth volume of his Histories about the Dacians who once inhabited Romania approximately between 82 BC and 106 AD. These Dacians were worshippers of a god named Zalmoxis, who they believed built his place of residence underground and was living in the cave of a holy mountain located in today’s Bucegi Mountains. This account from Herodotus is further supported by an old legend in Romania about its local deity named Zamolxis who resided inside mountains and would disappear into a secret cave whenever he needed to confer with his seers. 

Of course, just because we brought up Herodotus and local legends does not automatically validate claims that we are being denied the truth that ancient civilizations far advanced than our own existed tens of thousands of years ago and that they could have extraterrestrial origins. But you know what? For me, all this talk about a massive conspiracy theory that supposedly hides the existence of extraterrestrial life and technologically-superior ancient civilizations does not seem all that crazy to me. And while science and logic require more than just a published book as evidence of such claims, there are among us who are already quite convinced that there is definitely something more than meets the eye when it comes to fascinating sites like the Carpathian Sphinx and the Bucegi Mountains. 

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SOURCES:
https://www.amazon.com/Transylvanian-Sunrise-Radu-Cinamar/dp/0967816254
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_(Romania)
http://hiddenfromhumanity.com/Bucegi.pdf
http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/bucegi-mountains-strange-happenings-conspiracies-and-folk-legends-007094?nopaging=1
http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2012/12/is-there-any-truth-behind-the-bucegi-mountain-discovery/
https://hubpages.com/education/romaniansphinx
https://atlantisrisingmagazine.com/article/enigma-of-the-carpathian-sphinx/
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/historia_humanidad07.htm
https://www.ancient-code.com/an-ancient-library-hidden-beneath-the-sphinx-in-the-bucegi-mountains-a-suppressed-discovery/

5 Horrifying Realities of Daily Life in Medieval Times

History has amazing highlights and the civilizations that helped build the world we know of today have a lot to take credit for. From the monolithic pyramids at Giza to the brilliant and provocative artworks of the Renaissance, you would think that living in any of the centuries when mankind was reaching for the stars is something you would want to witness and participate in, but you may want to think twice about it.

While being a badass knight might sound epic to you or being one of Socrates’ valued students is a high honor, it’s the things that happen in between the knightly duties or the lessons at school that you should take heavily into consideration. Daily life in the Medieval Ages or Ancient Rome isn’t as glammed up to be, and the things we have read in our school’s history books have been, pretty much, filtered down to suit the taste of a general, more wholesome audience. Here are five horrifying realities of daily life in the early centuries of the world!

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5:  Plumbing Problems

Wikipedia

One of the greatest inventions introduced into human civilization is indoor plumbing. It is something we take extremely for granted on a daily basis. To us, it’s just part of a routine we go through every morning. We sit, we flush, we wash, and once our business is down the drain and off to the sewer system, it is not our business anymore. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. Sadly, the same cannot be said for people living in the days preceding indoor plumbing. Voiding your bowels is an almost non-stop horror movie that you have to live through every waking day and every waking moment of your life.

Take the Ancient Romans for example. You would think that for a civilization that has pioneered a revolutionary system for irrigation through the aqueducts, they would have found a solution to their plumbing problems. At the height of their Empire, the Romans did have a way of meeting the daily demands of bowel movement through a public toilet system. However, there was no sewage management system in place when it comes to dealing with human excrement. The public toilets were also a horror show regarding hygiene, and one would already be risking his health by simply sitting on one of the latrines with pipes that lead directly to a river of poop directly below. Believe it or not, you are even at risk of catching fire using one of these public facilities because of a large amount of methane buildup that’s steaming out of each toilet seat.

The medieval age was no better. In those days, people tried to be innovative and creative regarding getting rid of their offal. Some would dig cesspits and bury their waste, but it would eventually spill over to a neighbor’s yard. One woman named Alice Wade created a sophisticated wooden pipe system that ran underneath her neighbors’ yards and home and led directly to the street where her waste would end up. It was a clever contraption up until it clogged and backed up her neighbors’ sewage and, of course, you can’t fail to notice the accumulation of poop on the street. If you think this is already horrific, most people in those days simply went in the streets or wherever it is that they need to do their business in buildings, public squares, and marketplaces.

Number 4: Traveling Can Be Tricky

Pinterest

Another everyday activity that we can freely do these days is traveling. With the convenience of modern transportation, we can safely move from one place to another no matter the distance. Traveling abroad – or even to a nearby town – back in the day, is a completely different story.
We have all seen the movies where commoners traveled armed only with a walking stick and a rucksack filled with their personal belongings. They would be lucky if they had a horse to ride. One of the most challenging parts of traveling in the ancient world was a safe and clean place to rest. In fact, many travelers had no choice but to sleep out in the open and be vulnerable to the elements and either freeze to death or be attacked by wild animals. Travelling in a group may sound like a logical way to keep safe but you would still run the risk of armed bandits who would not think twice of slitting your throat before running off with your belongings or, in a sudden, ironic twist of fate, run the risk of being robbed and murdered by your companions should conditions become rough.

Ignorance of local customs in a foreign land may also prove to be a problem. Language barriers are the obvious hurdles but in times where political disputes and territorial skirmishes abound, being misinformed of the goings on may land you a one-way ticket to prison – if you’re lucky.

It also goes without saying that food and water can be a problem when you did not plan out your supplies correctly. Food poisoning is rampant especially if you end up foraging and hunting for food that could potentially do more harm to your body than you think. An inn or a monastery are relatively safe places to find lodgings and food to eat, granted that is the elements or bandits did not get to you first. Even the most sophisticated traveling party can be susceptible to the horrors of traveling abroad. Injury and accidents are as common as the air they breathe. In one account in 1190, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I met his untimely death when he drowned crossing the Saleph river during the Third Crusade. I think it’s safe to say that, back then, if you don’t have to go anywhere important, it’s safe to stay at home.

Number 3: No Quarter for the Unemployed

Tudor Place

In any government in any country and any economic system, unemployment is a necessary evil in the cogs of industry and progress. Today, we treat the unemployed humanely and offer help in the form of welfare, career counseling, and many other programs that can help anyone get on their feet and start building a life. I wish the same could be said centuries ago especially in the Medieval Age.

For example, being unemployed in 16th Century England is somewhat considered as a criminal offense. Because the unemployed had to wander and travel from one town to the next looking for any means of income, they would often be seen by law enforcement and other locals as vagrants and are swiftly thrown in jail. Well, the lucky ones at least. More often than not, the unemployed are tied to carts and dragged around town while being flogged and whipped to a bloody pulp. Talk about motivation. However that all changed in 1547 when the flogging law was changed and, instead, a vagrant could have the option of either being branded like cattle or be sold into slavery.

By the time 1600 rolled in, a new set of laws were passed that offered rewards to people who would capture and bring in vagrants. It was, as you can assume, a terrible plan to get the jobless off the streets as most people opted to make this a lucrative form of living by simply tackling and picking up anyone they find sleeping on the streets or suspect of vagrancy.

The government was not at all evil. In some form, they did provide assistance to the poor and the jobless. However, as part of the deal, they will be asked to wear a badge with the letter “P” stitched into it to identify them in a crowd. If an individual refused to wear it, he or she would be fined an equivalent of two weeks’ wages: wages that they did not have in the first place and could not have because they don’t have any form of employment to earn it.

Number 2: Being a Woman is Real, Ridiculously Tough

Crystalinks

The Ancient World, hands down, is brimming with misogyny and testosterone that many societies – except for some that also put women in high regard as their male generals like Sparta – treat the fairer sex as second class citizens and just a means of producing offspring.
A woman’s ordeal in the ancient world begins at birth. In Athens, it was common practice for a couple to leave their new born, a female child exposed to the elements to die.

Rome is no different. Especially in poor families, parents would often choose to raise a son than a daughter saying that a female child is far too burdensome and costs a lot more money to rear. Most families who do have a female infant would opt to kill the child or leave it exposed to the elements instead.The virtue of also keeping your virginity if you were a woman back then was a matter of life and death. An Athenian man who finds out that his unmarried daughter is no longer a virgin will sell her into slavery in the blink of an eye.

Another gruesome story happened in Rome when a priestess of the goddess Vesta lost her virginity before reaching the age of 30. She was promptly buried alive; and in Israel, a woman who lost her virginity before tying the knot could be dragged into the streets and be stoned to death.

Thinking of a dream wedding? Well, if you were living in the days of the Ancient Romans and the early centuries of the Chinese and Japanese empires, you better forget it. Back then, brides were secured by abducting them through invasion, war, and whatever conquest their empires are enterprising on. In some parts of China, the kidnapping of brides was not outlawed until the 1940s. Without kidnapped brides, the Roman Empire would have probably collapsed and crumbled early with accounts of it being told in several legends such as the kidnapping of the Sabine women.

Number 1: Death by Common Cold

HealDove

It goes without saying that the field of medicine is yet to make a revolutionary step forward in the days of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and even the Medieval Ages.

In fact, most deaths that aren’t attributed to illnesses are caused by tiny injuries like cuts and scrapes that, left untreated, led to a severe infection that spread to the vital parts of the body. If a person is lucky, he gets to keep his life but lose an infected limb or two. Among women, childbirth is one of the leading causes of death because of unsanitary practices and environments. An infant is also at high risk of dying due to mishandling and various forms of bacteria present in the surroundings.

Wealth and status are no guarantee to keep you in perfect health. However, history has seen more deaths in crowded urban areas than in far off farmlands. Maybe it is because of the unsanitary conditions of the cities. For one, no one knows where to throw their poop or where to poop. The Black Plague is a result of the lack of upkeep in the cities that has cost millions of lives across Europe. Suffice to say that, with the combination of an overcrowded urban landscape and poor medical information, simply catching the common cold signs you a one way trip to the grave in a matter of days.

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Sources:

http://www.cracked.com/article_22328_5-horrific-old-time-realities-your-history-book-left-out.html

http://listverse.com/2016/11/29/10-horrible-realities-of-being-a-woman-throughout-history/

http://www.historyextra.com/feature/medieval/10-dangers-medieval-period

Kusanagi: The Sacred Sword of Myth, Magic, and History

The sword of Kusanagi, the storied sword that completes the Imperial Regalia of Japan, is the stuff of ancient history and timeless legends abound by gods, monsters, and the few mortals who dared wield its piercing magic. But is the sword of Kusanagi, its very existence, part of real-life history? Or is this most storied blade fashioned only from tall tales forged brilliantly into an enduring legend? For us to arrive at answers, we must first take our journey back to a much, much earlier point in time. 

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The Imperial Regalia: The Three Great Treasures of Japan

Green Shinto

The Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, or grass-cutting sword, makes one of the three Imperial Regalia, The Great Treasures of Japan. Along with the Kusanagi sword, the other Regalia objects consist of The Regalia Mirror Yata-no-Kagami and the Regalia Jewel Yasakani-no-Magatama. The Imperial Regalia is said to embody the three primary virtues central to the ancient and now modern Japanese society.  While the Yasakani Jewel embodies benevolence, and the Yata Mirror represents wisdom, the Kusanagi Sword is the very embodiment of valor. 

Ever since the 7th century, the presentation of The Regalia Objects to the Emperor by a priest has been an essential element to the enthronement ceremony. The enthronement ceremony is a highly private tradition in which only the emperor and selected priests have the privilege of actually laying their eyes on the sacred treasures. Two of the three treasures, the Yasakani Jewel and the Kusanagi Sword, were last seen in 1989 during the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Akihito. 

Before it was known as the Kusanagi, the sacred sword carried a different name—Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which translates to Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven. The legendary sword’s origin is one that extends to an equally legendary battle that went down between the Storm God Susanoo and the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi. 

Once in time, according to ancient Japanese lore, there existed a fearsome eight-headed serpent named Yamata-no-Orochi.  For the longest time, the monster-serpent wreaked havoc to the province of Izumo, while it terrorized the province’s ruling Ashinazuchi family. The ruling family had nine daughters, and the serpent having devoured eight of them, was coming for the last Ashinazuchi daughter. Not wanting to lose another daughter, the head of the family sought the help of the then exiled Storm God Susanoo.  

Drachen Wiki

Upon hearing the story, the Storm God Susanoo wasted no time and tracked down and attacked the eight-headed beast. His valiant efforts, however, were in vain. Orochi proved to be a formidable beast, and the Storm God was ultimately forced to retreat. Although defeated at the moment, Susanoo wasted no time as he started to devise his next plan of attack against the serpent Orochi. 

Susanoo’s plan was as cunning as it was simple. The Storm God planned on getting each of Orochi’s eight heads drunk. And so, the Storm God Susanoo went on with the preparations. He had arranged eight giant bowls of sake, Japanese rice wine, to lure out the eight-headed serpent. Orochi took the bait and fell for the trap. 

Intoxicated and asleep, the beast was defenseless when Susanoo attacked, ferociously decapitating each of Orochi’s eight heads. To make certain that Orochi was unable to regenerate and return, Susanoo with his sword chopped off the serpent’s tails. Olden stories have it that it is in one of the Orochi’s tails that Susanoo recovered a second sword, the legendary sword which at the moment he named Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, or Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven. 

Yamato Takeru: The First Kusanagi Swordsman

Wikipedia

The Sun God Susanoo did not keep custody of the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi for very long. Although a god, Susanoo was banished from heaven because of a long-standing quarrel with his sister Ameterasu, Goddess of the Sun. Wanting to make peace with Ameterasu, Susanoo gifted the Sword of Gathering Clouds to her as a peace offering thus ending his long exile. 

Entire generations have come and gone. And many generations soon after, the Sword of Gathering Clouds changed hands once more when the Sun Goddess Ameterasu presented the sword to the great warrior Yamato Takeru, the son of Emperor Keiko—the 12th Emperor of Japan. It was in the hands of Takeru that the sword claimed its present name. It was also in the hands of the great warrior that the Kusanagi extended its existence deep into the imperial line of Japan. 

According to the legend, Takeru first discovered of the sword’s magic during a hunting expedition when a rival warlord lured him onto an open grassland. The warlord had his men shoot flaming arrows, thus setting the grass ablaze, and trapping Takeru in the fiery landscape. 

Moments away from burning to his death, Yamato Takeru drew the Sword of Gathering Clouds. With a series of wild swings, he used it to cut down the grass and clear a path that he can use to escape. Olden stories tell that it was during Takeru’s desperate attempt to escape the fiery grassland that he first discovered the Kusanagi’s magical ability to control the wind. Taking advantage of its new found magic, Takeru used the Sword of Gathering Clouds to gain control of the wind and sweep the great big fire across the landscape to the direction of the rival warlord and his men. 

Celebrating his victory over the treacherous warlord and commemorating his narrow escape from death, Takeru changed the name of the sword from Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven to Grass Cutting Sword—The Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. At that moment Yamato Takeru became the first man to wield the legendary Kusanagi sword. And since then, the Kusanagi bestowed upon its wielder the supreme power to be most powerful ruler in all of Japan. It is for this very reason that the Kusanagi sword, along with other Regalia Objects, are presented in the enthronement ceremony when a new Japanese Emperor assumes power.  

Historical Accounts of the Kusanagi

Sacred Texts

The earliest mention of the Kusanagi sword appeared in the ancient Japanese text, Kojiki. However, since Kojiki is a collection of Japanese myths, the text in it describing the existence of the Kusanagi is regarded less as a historical account and more as a work of early Japanese fiction. 

The first reliable historical mention of the sword is found in the Nihonshoki. Although parts of this book consist of mythological stories, the Nihonshoki prominently contains sections that recorded real-life historical events that were contemporary to its writing. In the Nihonshoki, it was the written that the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial Palace in Nara in 668 AD after the sword was suspected to cause Emperor Tenmu’s ill health. Having been removed from the Imperial Palace, the Kusanagi was the sent to the Atsuta Shrine to be safeguarded by Shinto priests. 

Originally built 1900 years ago, the Atsuta Shrine is among the most prominent places of worship from the time of ancient Japan. As the Atsuta Shine underwent major repairs during the Edo period, the Great Grand Shinto priest Matsuoka Masanao claimed that he was able to witness the legendary blade in the flesh. Upon describing the sword, Matsuoka detailed what became the most popular account of the Kusanagi: 

 “A stone box was in the wooden box of length 150 cm, a red earth had been stuffed into a gap, a cored camphor tree log like a box shape was seen in the stone box, and gold was laid out, the sword was placed on it. A red earth was also stuffed between the stone box and the camphor tree box. The sword was about 84 cm long, shaped like calamus, the middle of the sword had a thickness, and from the grip, about 18cm is like a fish spine, fashioned in a white metallic color, and well maintained.” 

Almost immediately after witnessing the Kusanagi, the Great Grand Priest Matsuoka was banished from the Shrine, while several Shinto priests died strange deaths. 

The Tale of the Heike

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After the sword’s possession by Yamato Takeru, there are few other stories that make prominent mention of past whereabouts of the Kusanagi. In The Tale of the Heike, a 14th-century collection of Japanese epic oral poetry, the Kusanagi sword is said to have been lost at sea following the defeat of the Kusanagi owners Heike clan and the child emperor Antoku in the Naval Battle of Dan-no-Ura. 

In the story, the Emperor's grandmother upon gathering the news of their clan’s defeat led the Emperor and his men to commit suicide by jumping into the waters. It was said that the emperor’s grandmother took with her two of the Three Sacred Treasures—the Regalia Jewel Yasakani-no-Magatama, and the Regalia Sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. The Regalia Mirror, meanwhile, stayed with a lady servant. 

Stories tell that while the Regalia Jewel was salvaged in its casket floating at sea, the Kusanagi Sword was lost forever to the great waters.  The historical reliability of this account, however, is regarded as questionable as the Tale of Heike was written 200 years well after the actual Battle of Dan-no-Ura took place. In those 200 years, more than a few replicas of the Three Sacred Treasures were made and lost when rival members of the royal family soldiered their way into power. It is widely thought that the Imperial Regalia lost in the Battle of Dan-no-Ura were mere replicas, as the original Regalia Objects remained tucked away in the Atsuta Shrine. 

The Kusanagi Today

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Today, it is believed that the Kusanagi sword remains safeguarded, as it was in the ancient times, well within the walls of the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya. The sword’s last known appearance in modern history was when it was presented to Emperor Akihito, along with the Regalia Jewel, in his enthronement ceremony in 1989. And even then both imperial objects remained practically unseen as both were shrouded in packages.  

Whether or not the Kusanagi, and the rest of the Imperial Regalia, still exist in their original incarnations can only be the subject of wild and probably endless speculations. Perhaps the only thing that holds some semblance of certainty is that these ancient, sacred relics—part-myth and part-history in their very existence—have shaped Japan in the most real way imaginable. 
 

Did Ancient Civilizations Possess Knowledge of Time Travel?

source: humansarefree

Time travel has always been a fascinating topic that’s been largely explored in a multitude of written works of science fiction and countless sci-fi films for many, many years. But what’s even more interesting is that tales of time travel go much further back in our history, with some ancient texts that have existed for hundreds or thousands of years mentioning or describing cases of people traveling forward in time. 
 
With the existence of a variety of ancient legends and myths from different parts of the world which seem to be literary interpretations of what could be actual examples of time traveling, some of us just can’t help but ask: Did certain ancient civilizations possess some knowledge of time travel?
 
Well, though we can’t answer this definitively just yet, for now, let us look into some of the ancient texts which mention tales of people who have supposedly defied all laws of logic, space and time. 

1. Story of the Seven Sleepers

source: wikipedia

The story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is a tale that is quite significant in both the Christian and Islamic tradition. The Christian interpretation of the story goes like this:

During the persecutions overseen by the Roman emperor Decius sometime in 250 AD, seven young men were accused of being worshippers of Christianity. These individuals were given some time to renounce their faith, but instead, they chose to surrender their material possessions by giving them to the poor and retiring to a mountain cave. Inside this cave, the seven young men prayed and eventually fell asleep. When they awoke, they thought they had only slept for a day, but when they wandered into the city to buy food, they were astounded to find buildings with the crosses of Christianity attached to them. And so, they came to the stunning realization that they had not slept for just one night, but for two hundred years, and they had awakened at a time when Christianity had already spread across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire. 

A similar tale about these sleepers can be found in Surah 18 of the Qur’an. Referred to as the story of the Companions of the Cave, it tells almost the same story as the Christian version; only the Qur’an does not provide the exact number of the People of the Cave who had miraculously been transported a couple of centuries into the future.

2. Bible - The Book of Baruch - Disappearance of Jeremiah

Source: ken raggio

There are also several examples of time travel found in the Bible, and one of them is a story about the disappearance of Jeremiah as told in the deuterocanonical Book of Baruch. 
 
In the first part of this book, Jeremiah is told by God that Jerusalem will be destroyed and that he has to bury and protect the vestments of the temple. After that, he is to go into exile with his people until the day comes that God would allow them to return. But before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah instructed Abimelech, a eunuch, to bring back figs from the orchard of Agrippa. Abimelech, however, ends up falling asleep in the orchard. And when he woke up, he was told by an old man that he had slept miraculously for the last 66 years. 

3. Mahabharata - Story of King Raivata Kakudmi

Source: a brief history of time travel

One of the very first stories that describe time travel can be found in the Hindu epic, Mahabharata – an ancient text which is believed to have been written no later than 400 BCE. This tale in that text follows a king, his daughter, and their quest to find her the most suitable husband. 

Revati was the only daughter of King Raivata Kakudmi, a monarch who ruled the prosperous kingdom of Kusasthali. Because the king thought her daughter was so beautiful and accomplished that no could prove good enough to marry her, Kakudmi took Revati to Brahmaloka, the home of the creator Brahma, to seek the powerful god’s help in finding his previous daughter the perfect suitor. 

When they arrived, Brahma was listening to a musical performance so they had to patiently wait until the performance was completed before Kakudmi could pay his respects and make his request to the god. However, once he did so, Brahma only laughed at the foolishness of the king. The God revealed that during the time they had waited in Brahmaloka, 108 yugas had already passed on Earth, with each yuga representing around 4 million years. 
 
With Kakudmi and Revati completely astonished over how so much time had passed on Earth during their short stay in Brahma’s domain, Brahma had to explain to them that time runs differently in different places of existence, which is interestingly similar to how modern physicists and astronomers conceptualize space-time today.  

4. Buddhist Text - Pali Canon - Heaven of the 30 Devas

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Another ancient text that we will be discussing is the Buddhist text of Pali Canon, which, like the previous stories, also mentions the relativity of time. 
 
It is written in this collection of scriptures in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition that in the heaven of the thirty Devas, or the place of the Gods, “time passes at a different pace, and people live much longer.” For example, one hundred years on Earth is equivalent to just a single day passing in the heaven of the Gods. 

5. Japan - Legend of Urashima Taro

source: wikia, ayakashi: ghost guild

Urashima Taro is the protagonist of the legend about a fisherman who rescued a turtle from harm, who turned out to be the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryujin. To personally thank him and reward him for his actions, Taro was brought to the bottom of the sea to visit the Palace of the Dragon God where she met the Emperor and Princess Otohime.
 
Taro stayed in the underwater palace for three days, but he eventually decided to go back home to his village where his aging mother lived. And so, he asked the princess’s permission to leave, and before he left, she gave him a mysterious box that will supposedly protect him from danger so long as he never opens it. 
 
However, when he reached land, he discovered that 300 years had already passed since he had left the village and traveled to the bottom of the sea. In grief of all that he had lost, he opened the box the princess gave him, which let out a cloud of white smoke. Suddenly, Taro aged rapidly, and from the sea, he heard the voice of the princess reveal that kept inside the special box she gave him was actually his old age. 
 
All the stories and texts I have just mentioned all paint the idea of time travel in the same way that modern science has theorized it today: that time is relative and not absolute; and that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. And while these myths and legends may just be stories concocted from the brilliant imagination of their writers, they have opened an avenue of discourse that compels us to contemplate what it could mean for humanity if there are those among us who have the means to travel through time as well as the power to modify our history. 

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//publics/pseudepig/ParJer-Eng.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-unexplained-phenomena/time-travel-ancient-mythology-modern-science-001242?nopaging=1
http://the-wanderling.com/mahabharata.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakudmi#Meeting_with_Brahma
https://www.ancient-code.com/time-travel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81li_Canon#Sutta_Pitaka
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/did-ancient-civilizations-possess-knowledge-of-time-travel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel