Jacob Grimm on Nordic Religion

It seems to have been instilled by Nature into every people that it should keep itself closed-off and untouched by alien elements. It can only guard its tongue, its ethos, within a closed circle. Only as long as it flows between its own banks does a river keep its waters pure. All pristine strength and the undisturbed expression of its deepest instincts emanate from this center and we see our oldest language, poetry and legend assert this very characteristic. However, a river has not only to accept the streams which bring down fresh water to it from mountain and hill but must ultimately flow out into the wide waters of the ocean. Peoples border upon peoples, peaceful commerce, war and conquest merge their destinies. Such intermingling may bring unexpected results, the advantages of which must be weighed against the loss which suppression of the native elements brought about. Yet the language, poetry and religion of our forefathers were unable everywhere and at all times to guard themselves against the onset of what was foreign, and they have experienced the most shattering transformation through the conversion of the people to Christianity.

HEROES AND WISE WOMEN, ELVES AND GIANTS, THE HIGHEST BEING

Deities form the essence of all mythology. Ours were buried out of sight and had to be unearthed. Their traces were able to be discerned partly in names that stubbornly refused to be rooted out and yet offered only an empty sound and partly with changed shape in the fluid but more complete form of popular legend. Upon closer inspection, all individual deities appear to be emanations and segments of one single deity: the Gods as sky, the Goddesses as earth, the former as fathers, the latter as mothers, the Gods creating, ruling, leading, governing victory and fortune, air, fire and water—the Goddesses nourishing, spinning, cultivating the fields, beautiful, adorned and loving. In all German tongues the Highest Being has always with one accord been called by the general name: God. In curses and exclamations our people, from fear of desecrating God s name, resort to some modification of this, saying potz wetter or kotz wunder instead of "Gottes"—however, I cannot trace this practice back to our ancient speech. Some remarkable uses of the word "God" in our older language and that of the common people may also have a connection with pagan ideas. In Middle High German poems one encounters the expression for a hearty welcome. gote unde mir wilekomen ("Welcome to God and me" ). Upper Germany has retained this form of greeting to the present day. The Highest Being is conceived as omnipresent and is expected like a host to take the newcomer under his protection. In the same way the name of the omniscient emphasizes an affirmation of knowledge or ignorance: das weiz got unde ich = God and I know that. Poems of the Middle Ages attribute human passions to God: especially is He often described as in a condition of placidity and joy or again in the contrary state of wrath and vengeance. The former is favorable for the endowment of distinguished and happy men. It is an equally pagan sentiment that imputes to God a wish to gaze at human beauty or at whatever men do. In the Middle Ages a wicked man was called gote leide, a sorrow to God. There is a parallel formula which substitutes the sun for God and so heightens the pagan complexion. A man so accursed does not deserve to have the sun shine kindly upon him. Such a hostile relationship results now and then in a rebellious spirit in man which breaks forth in Promethean defiance and threats or even takes a practical turn. If the God denied the assistance prayed for, his image was flung into the river by the people, immersed in water or beaten. In the Carolingian romances we repeatedly come upon the incident of Karl (Charlemagne) threatening the deity that if his aid is denied, he will cast down his altars and make the Church with all its priests leave the land of the Franks. The all-governing God is at the same time the all-seeing, all-knowing, all- remembering. Hence it is said of fortunate men that God saw them and of unfortunate ones, that God forgot them. Among appellations are several which God has in common with worldly rulers: the name Father is above all conspicuous. In the Edda the name Alfödr (All Father) is applied to Odin as the father of all Gods, humans and created things. This compound may have sounded pagan. However, the idea of God the Father became more familiar to Christians than to pagans. Most epic formulas are taken from God's dwelling place, his omnipotence, omniscience and truth. Many other expressions are indisputably connected with the pagan way of thinking. Since the Gods are represented as dwelling on high, in the heavens, upon mountain heights, it is natural that individuals should have certain particular mountains and abodes consigned them.

WORSHIP AND SACRIFICE

Because the Gods show favor more often than wrath and men are happily disposed rather than oppressed by their own sins and faults, thanksgiving sacrifices were the earliest and most frequent, sacrifices out of expiation rarer, more poignant. What can be offered to the Gods from the plant realm is serene, innocent, but also less significant than animal sacrifice. The flowing blood, the life shed, seems to assert stronger binding and appeasing power. Animal sacrifices are natural to the warrior, hunter and shepherd, while the farmer will give grain and flowers. The great yearly festivals of the pagans allude to folk gatherings and popular courts. Human sacrifices absolve according to their nature and origin. A great misfortune, a serious crime, can only be conjured away and expunged through human blood. Sacrifices were made by all peoples of antiquity, there is undoubted evidence of this in Germany. As a rule, victims to be sacrificed were captive foes, purchased serfs or extreme criminals. On the other hand, the death penalty was rare or unheard of among the ancient peoples. In folk legends there are still traces of the sacrificing of children. Rare cases could even demand the death of a king's son and daughters, indeed of a king himself. Animal sacrifices were chiefly made as thanksgiving, but also as expiation and as such they often represent moderation in place of older human sacrifices. Only such animals were suitable whose flesh was fit for human consumption. It would have been inappropriate to offer the God a food which the sacrificers had themselves scorned. At the same time these sacrifices also appear as feasts. An allotted portion of the slaughtered animal was brought to the sacrifice, and the remainder cut in pieces, shared out and consumed by the assembly. The people entered as a result into fellowship with the holy sacrifice, just as the Gods were held to be joint feasters at their meal. It was commanded of kings that at great sacrifices they taste all foods. Superstitious people later still placed food at one side for the house spirits and dwarfs. In the oldest times chiefly horses seem to have been sacrificed, undoubtedly their flesh was universally eaten before the introduction of Christianity. Missionaries found nothing so repellent about the pagans, as the latter would not abandon the killing of horses and enjoying of their flesh. The cutting-off of the horse's head which was not eaten but dedicated to the God must not be overlooked in this connection. I believe that among all known sacrifices only those of the horse were celebrated at the nine year festivals. Among all animal sacrifices that of the horse was the most noble and the most solemn. Our forefathers had it in common with several Slavic and Finnish peoples, with Persians and Indians. The horse was held by them all to be a particularly sacred animal. Along with cattle, sacrifices of boars, pigs and rams were not rare; we are uncertain about other sacrificial animals. The dove was a Jewish and Christian animal sacrifice, cocks were offered by the Greeks to Aesculapius to heal an infected finger, and it was the custom in the Touraine to sacrifice a wild cock to Saint Christopher. Among game only edible beasts were sacrificial: deer, roes, wild pigs, but never wolves or foxes to whom even a ghostly nature is attributed. In paganism, wild animals seem to have been preferred for sacrifice. The animals dependent upon man, his house animals, have to suffer upon his death, with his sacrifice and punishment. Besides the sex, weight was certainly laid upon the color of the animal and white was favored most of all. One can imagine that the beast was decorated and embellished for sacrifice. Some details suggest that before sacrifice the animals were led around in the midst of the popular assembly. While the animal lost its life on the sacrificial stone, all the flowing blood was caught either in a specially arranged trench or in vessels. The holy tables and vessels and the participants were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Prophecies were probably made from the blood, and it is possible that a portion of it was mixed with beer or mead and drunk. The distribution of the pieces among the people was probably carried out by a priest. On great feast days the banquet was held directly during the popular assembly. Several reports reveal that the animal was transformed to ashes on the wood pile. Also no importance was attached to smoke offerings. The sweet incense of Christians was something new to the pagans. An animal blood sacrifice is more social, more universal; it was customary that the entire people of the community brought this. Fruit or flowers, milk or honey every household and even an individual could offer. These fruit offerings are therefore more isolated, more impoverished. History scarcely mentions this, but they have lasted all the longer and more firmly in folk custom. The farmer, when he cuts his corn, leaves a heap of ears standing to the God who blessed the corn, and decorates them with ribbons. Even now during the fruit harvest in Holstein, five or six apples are left hanging untouched on every tree, then the next crop prospers. At the solemn handing over of landed properties, branches with leaves, apples or nuts serve as signs of trade. To this also belongs the hanging of the image of the God with garlands, of a sacred tree or a sacrificial animal with leaves and flowers. In the Scandinavian sagas not the slightest trace of the latter is revealed. On Ascension day in more than one district of Germany the girls wind garlands of white and red flowers and hang them up in the kitchen or the stables over the cattle, until they are replaced the next year by fresh ones. Here pagan custom appears to have been transferred to Christian festivals: Just as it was a very ancient and widespread custom to leave back at a feast a portion of the food for the household Gods and in fact a dish with broth was placed for Berchta and Holda, the Gods were allowed to enjoy a festive drink. The drinker, before he enjoyed it himself, was accustomed to pour out something for the God or household spirits. Connected with this are Norwegian legends about Thor, who appears at weddings and accepts or empties enormous barrels of beer. It was the custom to honor an absent or dead person by mentioning them at the assembly and feast and downing a cup to their memory. In like manner as by observing this drinking custom which was continued into later time, research into pagan mythology will find it advantageous to study the designs used in baking which either still imitated the old idol's shape or retained the prescriptions of an offering. Thus, much which would not really be applicable in the offerings and customs of the people—the color of the animal, the leading around of the boar, the flowers, the drinking of toasts, even the shape of cakes, is still a memory of the offerings of paganism. Besides the prayers and offerings, an essential part of the pagan cult must still be emphasized: the solemn carrying or leading around of the images of the Gods. The deity was not to stay in only one place but show its presence through the entire circumference of the land. Thus Frau Nerthus drove around, thus Fro [Freya] moved from place to place in the Spring, thus the sacred ship, the sacred plough, were led about. Holda, Berchta, and all similar beings held their walk at appointed times of the year, to the joy of pagans, to the horror of Christians. Even Wodan's wild hunt can be so interpreted. A comparison can be made of customs of public law, the riding around of newly crowned kings through the streets of the land, the solemn recording of paths, the beating of the bounds, at which priests and images of the Gods will have been present in ancient times. After the conversion to Christianity, the Church also allowed such processions, except that an image of Mary or other sacred images were carried, namely when drought, crop failure, sickness or war had broken out, in order to cause rain, fertility of the fields, recovery from illness and gaining of victory. Even at the outbreak of fire sacred images were applied against this.

PLACES OF WORSHIP

A temple is simultaneously a wood. What we think of as a walled building, merges, the farther back we go, into a sacred place untouched by human hands, in a grove and enclosed by dense trees. There the God dwells, veiling his form in the rustling foliage of the boughs. There is the place at which the hunter has to present him with the game he has killed and the herdsman his horses, oxen and rams. I am not maintaining that this forest worship exhausts all the conceptions which our ancestors had formed of the deity and its dwelling-place. It was only the principle. Here and there a God may haunt a mountain top, a cave in the rocks, a river. But the solemn general worship by the people had its seat in the grove. And nowhere could it have found a better one: it was customary with many peoples. At a time when crude beginnings were all that existed of the builder's art, the human mind must have been aroused to a higher devotion by the sight of lofty trees under an open sky than it could ever feel inside the stunted structures reared by unskilled hands. When, long afterwards, the architecture peculiar to the Germans reached its perfection, did it not in its boldest creations aim at reproducing the soaring trees of the forest? Would not the childlike imaginative power of primeval times have felt itself estranged by the disproportion of poorly carved or painted images of the God which it imagined as enthroned on the leafy top of a sacred tree? In the blowing of the wind, under the shade of primeval forests the soul of man felt itself filled by the presence of the ruling deities. What a deep influence forest life had from of old on all circumstances of our people is shown by the preservation of the Guilds of the Marches (Markgenossenschaften). Marka, the word from which they bear their name, first signified forest and then also boundary. In the course of centuries and until the introduction of Christianity the custom was served of worshipping the deity in the sacred forests and trees. Among the Saxons and Frisians the worship in the groves lasted far longer. In various parts of Lower Saxony and Westphalia traces of sacred oaks have been preserved until recent times, to which the people showed a half-pagan, half-Christian reverence. I am inclined to trace back the naming of sacred forests, which appears almost everywhere in Germany, to paganism. One would hardly have called the forests sacred after Christian churches which were built in them and usually no such church is found in the forests. Even less can the naming be explained from the prohibited royal forests of the Middle Ages. Conversely these forest preserves seem themselves to have emanated from pagan groves and in place of the cult appears the law of the king who withdrew the sacred forest from the use and common ownership of the people. Such forests were also, in many places, a refuge for malefactors. In the course of centuries this ancient forest worship became displaced -- more with some peoples, less with others -- in favor of the erection of temples. We see all Christian missionaries eagerly lay the axe to the sacred trees of the pagans and set their temples on fire. It would almost seem as if the unfortunate people were not even asked for their agreement and only the rising smoke announced to them the broken power of their Gods. But with closer study of the circumstances it is revealed from the less boastful accounts that neither the pagans were so cowardly and simple nor Christians so thoughtless. Boniface resolved to cut down the thunder oaks only after careful consultation with the already converted Hessians and in their presence. The Thuringian king's daughter would never have halted her horse and given the command to set fire to the Frankish temple, if her followers had not been numerous enough to oppose the pagans. It is expressly remarked in most reports that in place of the pagan tree or temple a church was erected. In this way the customs of the people were spared and it was made credible that the ancient sacredness of the place had departed but henceforth was dependent on the presence of the true God. At the same time one discovers from this the cause of the almost total lack of remains of pagan monuments. They were either leveled to the ground in order to build a Christian church over them or their walls and halls were even used for the latter. One may restrain oneself from having a high opinion of the architecture of the pagan Germans, but they must have understood how to arrange appreciable masses of stone and to cement them firmly. Evidence of this is provided by the burial mounds and places of sacrifice preserved in Scandinavia and partly still in Friesland and Saxony, from which some important conclusions can be drawn about the old pagan worship of God. On many German mountains traces of Gods and heroes are found which allude to ancient places of worship: on the Taunus of Brunnhilde, on the Harz of Gibich and Dietrich.

PRIESTHOOD

The German priests were active as guardians of divine and worldly law, together with religious worship and popular courts. In campaigns by the army they alone controlled discipline, not the generals, since the entire war was conducted as if in the presence of the deity. From the sacred grove they took with them the images and insignia into the field. If the future were to be predicted from the neighing of the publicly maintained white horse, priests accompanied the sacred wagon and authorized the proceedings. Only the priests might touch the wagon of the deity; the latter's approaching presence was recognized by him, he accompanied it respectfully and ultimately led it back into the sacred abode. The rareness of records which mention the priests were a reason why their office was long overlooked. Undoubtedly, they were also responsible for the uttering of solemn prayers, the killing of sacrificial animals, the consecration of the dead, perhaps also of marriages and the administering of oaths. The Nordic priest's office reached deeply into the practice and guardianship of the law. Gestures and postures necessary for certain legal transactions are reminiscent of many priestly rituals during offerings and prayers. In such a capacity the priests seem to have had an important influence on the people while there is little mention of their political influence on the kings' courts. Even after the introduction of Christianity the Icelandic judges retained the name and many powers of the pagan priests. I have not come across any references to the clothing worn by the Northern priests. Among many Aryan peoples the priest's robe was of white color. Was the office of a poet connected with the latter? Even by Christian poets, after the conversion, one or other thing is still related which has been passed on to us by pagan Skalds. History has not preserved the name of any vates, a singer and soothsayer at the same time, although soothsaying was the office of the priest, and the names of several prophetesses are known. Tacitus mentions the Veleda as prisoners in the triumphant march of Vespasian. The Nordic sources stress the priestly office of women less than their gift of prophecy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Languages at the Time of Jesus

by Deanna Gallo

Various languages were spoken in Roman-occupied Palestine during the first century AD, which was the world and time of Jesus. The most prominent of these languages were Aramaic, Hebrew and Koine Greek. The Latin spoken by the occupying Romans held only a minor place in comparison with these three languages.

ARAMAIC

Aramaic is a Semitic language, related to both Hebrew and Arabic. This was the language spoken originally in Mesopotamia, and as empires rose and fell in the millennium before the birth of Jesus, the Aramaic language was used as the vehicle of communication among people of different nations, eventually spreading as far west as Egypt and becoming the lingua franca of the entire area.

Many scholars believe that the Jewish people first acquired Aramaic during the years of the Babylonian captivity, and that centuries later, their descendants brought Aramaic with them into Israel. Parts of the Old Testament, in fact, are written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.
In the third century BC, when Greek began overtaking Aramaic as the dominant language in much of the region, Aramaic was still extensively spoken in Palestine. By the first century, it had diverged into an array of dialects, which some historical linguists prefer to consider separate Aramaic-based languages.

Aramaic is thought to have been the native language of Jesus.

HEBREW

Like Aramaic, Hebrew is a Semitic language, and one with writings that date back to the tenth century BC. Hebrew is the traditional language of the Jewish people, and has always been the language of prayer and worship.
There is some debate among language historians over the precise status of Hebrew during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Some scholars claim that Aramaic was the day-to-day language of the Jewish people during this time, and that Hebrew was used mainly for religious study and liturgical purposes. Other scholars disagree, and point to newer evidence suggesting that Hebrew functioned as a living language alongside Aramaic until the end of the Roman period.
It is not known for certain whether or not Jesus spoke Hebrew. Many religious scholars claim that he did, and they support this claim by citing his knowledge of Hebrew scripture and theology.

KOINE GREEK

Koine refers to the common dialect of Greek, which, beginning in the third century BC, became the lingua franca for the entire region conquered by Alexander the Great. Koine Greek remained the common trade language of the region during Jesus' time; it was widely spoken in Palestine, and even the Romans made use of it in their administration of the province. It is thought likely that Jesus would have had some familiarity with this language.
A few decades after the crucifixion, the books of the New Testament were composed in Koine Greek, which made them accessible to people of many nations.

LATIN

Latin was the language of the occupying Roman army. However, in Palestine the status of Latin was different from its status in the Romanized provinces of Western Europe, where Latin came to displace the native languages altogether. In the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, Latin did not have great influence over the populace and never held the role of a dominant language. Most of the people who lived in the Roman province of Palestine during the life of Jesus did not speak Latin.

STONE ‘SHIP’ MAY BE VIKING BURIAL MOUND

The Ancient American, Volume 1, Issue 6
By Carol Bass

An unusual mound of stones in the shape of a ship which could date back to Viking settlements in the New World has been discovered in an area forest. History experts who have visited the site suspect the 65-foot stone structure may be a large “cairn,” an ancient European burial site constructed for the dead by the Viking and Celtic cultures. The exact location of site, which is in Windham County, is being kept under wraps to avoid the possibility of vandalism.
When first sighted through undergrowth, the ‘cairn’ appears to be just another short stretch of old New England stone wall, but on closer inspection, the boat shape of the stone pile becomes immediately apparent. The ‘cairn’ is close to 50 feet long and at its widest point measures 30-40 feet wide, and is four feet high. It is a near exact stone replica of a New England dory, a narrow at the bow and stern, with a very wide-mid-section. It is in fairly good shape and is only slightly damaged on one side where a growing tree has caused part of it crumble.
The structure was discovered by photographers Virginia and William Welch of Hampton. The couple saved it from near demolition by officials who have been planning to reforest the area. The state Department of Environmental Protection has now flagged the site to protect it for further observation and study.
The site has been viewed by several regional historical societies, including the Early Sites Research Society of Rowley, Mass., and the Gungywump Society of Noank. Officials from the societies agree that the site is ‘Nordic’ in nature, although no definitive conclusion has been reached about the origin of the artifact.
All who have viewed the site, however, agree with David Barron, president of the Gungywump Society, the structure is ‘very definitely not just a pile of stones. It was deliberately laid, deliberately set out, and has a deliberate plan to it.”
The Gungywump Society is a group of avocational archaeologists and historians who study historical phenomena throughout the state.
The mounds origins remain unknown now, although it is known that Vikings were in Canada. Barron said he wouldn’t suggest the mound is Viking in origin, because he said, “There is no evidence yet beyond the fact that it is unique and in the shape of a boat.”
Welch noted that the centerpiece of the structure, which he described as a ‘a slab that appears to have been standing,” resembles European burial places, or ‘cairns’.
This particular cairn, if that is what the structure is, is unusually large, according to Barron.
The presence of Viking in the New World before Columbus has been a debatable topic for years. It is agreed that the Vikings visited ancient Russia, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, Iceland and Greenland.
Experts who have visited the Windham Country site are cautious to theorize about its origins. They all agree with Welch, however, that it is ‘something that appears to be very old. It’s an artifact that goes far beyond the English-Colonial period,” he said.
“Our main objective right now is to keep it low key Riggio said, “One of the problems we have today is that field, stone is in such high demand there pillaging of old stone walls and their stones get robbed every day.” Welch thinks the structure has at least ‘superficial similarities’ to European cairns which commemorate burial sits.”

America's Viking Heritage

Frank Joseph
(The Ancient American, Volume 1, Issue 6)

Through the ominous visor of the helmet feature on this month’s cover once peered the eyes of a Norse warrior. Found at a Swedish site belonging to the 7th century A.D., it predates the generally accepted beginning of the so-called “Viking Age,” 200 years later. For unknown millennia before, culturally related Germanic peoples inhabited the lands of the Baltic and Scandinavia, steadily growing in the number of settlements, until the relationship between burgeoning population and shrinking living space made the Norse look beyond Northern Europe, around the turn of the 9th Century . It was then that they began referring to th4emselves as “Vikings”, or “Bay-raiders”, after their early sorties among the fjords of their own homelands. And, while the title persisted for the duration of the Viking Age, the Norse very quickly expanded their activities far beyond local bays and inlets. Their great courage and incomparable long-ships took them throughout Russia to North Africa, as far as Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and . . . America.
Most salaried historians have long demonstrated a knee-jerk rejection of any notion that Vikings actually landed here, dismissing such embarrassing suggestions as many tall tales. Even after the critics were forced to acknowledge 40 years ago that a northern Newfoundland site, L’Anse aux Meadows, yielded physical evidence of an 11th Century Norse settlement, they continue to deny the Vikings any farther. Clearly, Establishment academics are clinging to a deteriorating position. The two widely this issue are certainly authentic artifacts which confirm Viking impact on America. The very text of the Kensington Runestone establishes its authenticity, even down the smallest detail. For example, the runic author describes his Minnesota location as an “island”. Nowhere in the broad vicinity of its discovery does the area remotely resemble anything like an island. Yet, at the same time of the date inscribed on the Stone, 1362, the present location of Kensington was an island surrounded by a shallow lake that has long since vanished, a fact not recognized until long after the deaths of all persons who found the Stone in the late 19th Century. Moreover, modern stone-carvers have affirmed that the Runestone was inscribed by an expert mason, while the artifact’s discoverers were only simple farmers, with no such skills.
A contrary view is taken by rune-researcher, Jane Sibley. Kensington SAtone is not authentically Viking. But unlike other critics, Jane makes a provocative presentation of new evidence and challenges the defenders of the runestone to find convincing responses. Whatever we may think of her assessment, her advocacy of new testing for the controversial artifacts points future research in the right direction.

The Development of the Germanic Languages

Deanna Gallo


First, let us define the Germanic languages. The Germanic languages are a sub-family of languages which descend from the large Indo-European language family. The Germanic languages are subdivided into three groups. The Western Germanic family includes English, Dutch, German, Afrikaans and the lesser-known Frisian. The North Germanic languages are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. A third group, East Germanic, which included Gothic, is now extinct.
The Proto-Germanic dialect of Indo-European that would in time give rise to the various Germanic languages probably emerged in a small area of Northern Europe around 2500 BC. Proto-Germanic retained much of the grammar characteristic of Indo-European; for example, grammatical gender and the inflectional system of nouns and adjectives.
At the same time, however, Proto-Germanic differs from the other Indo-European languages in specific and regular ways. Grimm's Law describes the sound-shift of several Indo-European consonants into their Germanic forms. The Indo-European p-sound, for example, becomes the sound f in all Germanic languages. Among other notable changes, k becomes the Germanic h, and d becomes t.
The Germanic languages are also characterized by their dual system of verbs, which is preserved in English today. So-called weak verbs form their past tense by the addition of a d or t sound, as in the English walked and helped. Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the verb internally, as in sang and brought.
By 500 BC, Germanic speakers had spread through much of Northern Europe, and the language had by this time diverged into western, northern and eastern dialects. It is believed that at this time these dialects were mutually intelligible. Runic inscriptions made around this time allow linguists to study the Germanic dialects. It is around this time, also, that the first written records of the Germanic peoples appear; the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an account of Germanic customs and catalogued the geographical location of several tribes.
What is known as the Migration Period occurred between 300 and 700 AD, and the Germanic dialects were taken into new lands. In many of these places, such as Ireland, France and Spain, Germanic eventually gave way to other, more dominant languages. But in other places, Germanic established itself as the predominant language. The Vikings, speaking a Germanic dialect known as Old Norse, brought their language into Iceland, where it is spoken today in a form not much different from the original Old Norse. In England, three Germanic-speaking tribes brought their dialects, which would soon merge to become Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
By the tenth century AD, the various Germanic languages had evolved to a point where they were no longer mutually intelligible. Around this time, the Eastern Germanic languages were assimilated and soon disappeared. The principal northern dialect, Old Norse, gave rise to the earliest recognizable forms of Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. And the main western dialects were now Old English, Old High German, and Old Franconian, which would later emerge as Dutch.

These now fully divergent languages would continue their separate development throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period, and would finally become the modern Germanic languages.

Vikings in Greenland

Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors (often referred to as Vikings) explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America.
While the Norse colony in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years, the continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to fetch timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements in North America.[1]
Main article: History of Greenland
According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði), having been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, explored the uninhabited southwestern coast of Greenland during the three years of his banishment.[2][3] He made plans to entice settlers to the area, even purposefully choosing the name Greenland to attract potential colonists, saying "that people would be more eager to go there because the land had a good name".[4] The inner reaches of one long fjord, named Eiriksfjord after him, was where he eventually established his estate Brattahlid. He issued tracts of land to his followers.[5]


Map of the Eastern Settlement, covering approximately the modern municipalities of Qaqortoq, Narssaq and Nanortalik. Eiriksfjord (Erik's fjord) and his farm Brattahlid are shown, as is the location of the bishopric at Gardar.
At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements, the Eastern and the Western Settlement, with a total population of between 3000 and 5000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.[5] Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale or seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, and cattle hides. In 1261, the population accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King although it continued to have its own law. In 1380, the Norwegian Kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark.
The colony began to decline in the 1300s. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350 and by 1378 there was no longer a bishop at Garðar. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 1400s, although no exact date has been established. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 A.D. (+/- 15 years). Several theories have been advanced to explain the decline. The Little Ice Age of this period would have made it harder to travel between Greenland and Europe, as well as making it more difficult for the Greenlanders to farm; in addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa. Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danish crown continued to consider Greenland a possession and the existence of the island was not forgotten by European geographers. It is also possible that the lands west of Greenland were remembered.
Not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained in Greenland or not—and worried that if it did, it would still be Catholic 200 years after the Scandinavian homelands had experienced the Reformation—a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland in 1721. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's assertion of sovereignty over the island; see Danish colonization of the Americas.

Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows
Main articles: Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows
According to the Icelandic sagas ("Eirik the Red's Saga" and the "Saga of the Greenlanders"—chapters of the Hauksbók and the Flatey Book), the Norse started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. In 985 while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400-700 settlers[5][6] and 25 other ships (14 of which completed the journey), a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course and after three days sailing he sighted land west of the fleet. Bjarni was only interested in finding his father's farm, but he described his discovery to Leif Ericson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later.[5]
The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones"; Markland, "the land of forests", definitely of interest to settlers in Greenland where there were few trees; and Vinland, "the land of wine" (or as suggested by modern linguists "the land of meadows"), found somewhere south of Markland. It was in Vinland that the settlement described in the sagas was planted.
All four of Erik the Red's children were to visit the North American continent, his sons Leif, Thorvald and Thorstein and their sister Freydis. One of the sons, Thorvald, died there.

Leif's winter camp
Using the routes, landmarks, currents, rocks, and winds that Bjarni had described to him, Leif sailed some 1,800 miles to the New World with a crew of 35—sailing the same knarr Bjarni had used to make the voyage. He described Helluland as "level and wooded, with broad white beaches wherever they went and a gently sloping shoreline."[5] Leif and others had wanted his father, Erik the Red, to lead this expedition and talked him into it. However as Erik attempted to join his son Leif on the voyage towards the continent of North America, his horse slipped on the wet rocks near the shoreline and he was injured and thus stayed behind.[5]
Leif wintered in 1001, probably at Cape Bauld on the northern tip of Newfoundland, and his German foster father Tyrkir (de) was there found drunk of what the saga describes as "wine". Squashberries, gooseberries, and cranberries all grew wild in the area. There are varying explanations for Leif apparently describing fermented berries as "wine". In Old Norse, there could be two different meanings for the word "vin" depending on whether a short i or long í is used. A long í in the word "vin" could mean "wine", while a short i could mean "pasture", and linguistic research indicates that the pasture or meadow argument is probably the most logical in the name Vinland. Interestingly, in modern Icelandic, "vin" with a short 'i' means "oasis". Leif spent another winter at "Leifsbodarna" without conflict, and sailed back to Brattahlid in Greenland to assume filial duties for his father.

Thorvald's voyage
In 1004, Leif's brother Thorvald Ericson sailed with a crew of 30 men to Newfoundland and spent the following winter at Leif's camp. In the spring, Thorvald attacked nine of the local people, who were sleeping under three skin-covered canoes. The ninth victim escaped and soon came back to the Norse camp with a force. Thorvald himself was killed by an arrow that succeeded in passing through the barricade. Although brief hostilities ensued, the Norse explorers stayed another winter and left the following spring. Subsequently another of Leif's brothers, Thorstein, sailed to the New World to retrieve his dead brother's body, but he only stayed for one summer.[5]

Karlsefni's expedition
It was in 1009 that Thorfinn Karlsefni, also known as "Thorfinn the Valiant", supplied three ships with livestock and 160 men and women[6] (although another source sets the number of settlers at 250). After a cruel winter, he headed south and landed at Straumfjord, but later moved to Straumsöy, possibly because the current was stronger there. A sign of peaceful relations between the indigenous peoples and the Norsemen is noted here; the two sides bartered with furs and gray squirrel skins for milk and red cloth, which the natives tied around their heads as a sort of headdress.
There are conflicting stories but one account states that a bull belonging to Karlsefni came storming out of the wood, so frightening the natives that they ran to their skin-boats and rowed away. They returned three days later, in force. The natives used catapults, hoisting "a large sphere on a pole; it was dark blue in color" and about the size of a sheep's belly,[7] which flew over the heads of the men and made an ugly din.[7] The Norsemen retreated. Leif Ericson's half-sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir was pregnant and unable to keep up with the retreating Norsemen. She called out to them to stop fleeing from "such pitiful wretches", adding that if she had weapons, she could do better than that. Freydís seized the sword belonging to a man who had been killed by the natives. She pulled one of her breasts out of her bodice and struck it with the sword, frightening the natives, who fled.[7]
No permanent colonies


Territories and voyages of the Vikings
Settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs and in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Greenland due to deforestation.[8] It is unclear why the short-term settlements did not become permanent, though it was in part due to hostile relations with the indigenous peoples, referred to as Skrælings by the Norse. Nevertheless, it appears that sporadic voyages to Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the locals could have lasted as long as 400 years.[9][10]
Evidence of continuing trips includes the Maine Penny, a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1066-80) found in a Native American archaeological site in the U.S. state of Maine, suggesting an exchange between the Norse and the Native Americans late in or after the 11th century; and an entry in the Icelandic Annals from 1347 which refers to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of eighteen that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber.[11] In addition, Norse materials have been excavated in several Inuit communities.

Aftermath
For some centuries after Christopher Columbus' voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously when in 1837 the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement in or voyages to North America.


The Skálholt-map
North America, by the name Winland, was first mentioned in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. It was not until the 13th and 14th centuries that the most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely the Sagas of Icelanders, were put into writing.
The question was definitively settled in the 1960s when a Norse settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland and that it therefore lay farther south.


Hare Indian dogs, as illustrated in ''Fauna Boreali-americana, Or, The Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America, 1829
Purported runestones have been found in North America, most famously the Kensington Runestone, that are thought by some to be artifacts from further Norse exploration, although they are typically considered to be hoaxes. There are two maps depicting North America, "The Vinland map", that some believe is related to Norse exploration, although it is considered to be a modern forgery, and the Skálholt Map, made by an Icelandic teacher in the year 1570.
The Hare Indian dog of the banks of the Mackenzie River and Great Bear Lake are thought by some to have originated from crossbreedings between native Tahltan Bear Dogs and Icelandic breeds brought by the viking explorers.[12]

The Jesus Cup

Professor Craig Evans
New Testament Studies,
Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia

On Discovery Channel in the fall of 2008 French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Centre of Maritime Archaeology, announced the discovery of a ceramic cup during underwater exploration of the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt. Goddio and his team found a cup on which are inscribed the words dia crhstou o goistais, which may mean “the magician by Christ,” perhaps in the sense that “the magician (possesses his power) by (or through) Christ.” (goistais would be understood as a variant of gohth/j or go/hj [“enchanter”].) Goddio and Egyptologist David Fabre date the cup sometime between late second century BC and early first century AD. If the reference is to Jesus Christ, then it would indeed be the earliest inscriptional reference to the founder of Christianity.

However, there are several problems with this suggestion. Although the spelling Xrhsto/j (instead of Xristo/j) is attested in reference to Jesus Christ (e.g., see no. 10 below), the early date of the cup is problematic. Of course, the inscription itself may not be as old as the cup. Another problem has to do with the odd spelling o goistais. Is this really a variant for o9 goh/thj, or some other form of magician? Klaus Hallof, of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, and Bert Smith, professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford, have suggested that the inscription should be read ogoistais, in reference to the god Ogoa, mentioned by Pausanias (c. 160 AD), whose followers may have been called Ogoistai. Ogoa, or Osogoa, is another name for Zeus. For references, see Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.10.3 (“the sanctuary of the god [i.e., Zeus], called in the native tongue Osogoa; Strabo, Geography 14.

Although the possibility that the inscription may have referred to Jesus, whose power was invoked by a magician, cannot be ruled out, in my view it is more likely that the reference is to someone named Chrestus (a common enough name), who was either a magician and/or was among the Ogoistai.

The Bosnian Pyramid Phenomenon

By Robert M. Schoch
Boston University

Semir Osmanagic announced it to the press with fiery conviction: “The history of civilization has to be rewritten,” he said. “Bosnia will become a giant on the world archeological map” (quoted from a May 4, 2006 Reuters Report By Daria Sito-Sucic). On the outskirts of the Bosnian town of Visoko, half an hour drive northwest of Sarajevo, Osmanagic claimed there were two monstrous pyramids (dubbed the “Pyramid of the Sun” and the “Pyramid of the Moon”), and perhaps several smaller pyramids as well. Even the prestigious New York Times picked up the story: “Some See a Pyramid to Hone Bosnia’s Image. Others See a Big Hill.” (New York Times, May 15, 2006, page A8). At least four different websites were devoted to the “Bosnian Pyramids” (http://www.bosnianpyramids.org/ http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/ http://www.bosnian-pyramid.com/ and http://www.piramidasunca.ba/). The supposed pyramids formed the stuff of heated debate at other websites (most notably, perhaps, that of the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/osmanagic/update.html), chat-rooms, and blogs across the Internet.

Were they really man-made pyramids, perhaps dating back thousands of years? (Some advocates placed them as much as 12,000 or 14,000 years in the past.) Now covered with soil, trees, and other vegetation, Bosnian pyramid buffs argued that the “pyramids” needed to be excavated to reveal their glory and prove that Bosnia, of all places, was the virtual origin of, well not just pyramids, but perhaps even civilization. Tunnels reputedly associated with the pyramids were said to contain cryptic engravings that could just possibly be the oldest writing ever discovered. Detractors, on the other hand, saw the so-called pyramids as simply interesting, but perfectly and completely natural, geomorphologic features - - that is, they are just big hills. Some even argued that the whole notion of the Bosnian pyramids was not just a mistake or an ill-conceived notion, but a downright hoax designed to bring prestige, fame, power, and money to Bosnia, Visoko, and the head of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation, the Bosnian-American (he now resides in Houston much of the time where he maintains a business) Semir (“Sam”) Osmanagic (also spelled Osmanagich). Indeed, on May 12, 2006, National Geographic ran an article on their website titled “Pyramid in Bosnia -- Huge Hoax or Colossal Find?” (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/pyramid-bosnia-1.html). It did not help Osmanagic’s case, at least in the eyes of the traditional academic community, that he is an advocate of “alternative history” (see his website http://www.alternativnahistorija.com/), and of his numerous books (mostly published in Bosnian), the one widely available in English, titled The World of the Maya, almost seems purposefully written to provoke the ire of traditional archaeologists.

Having more than a casual interest in ancient pyramids (after all, I am the author of two books focusing on pyramids: Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, and Pyramid Quest), I wanted to see first-hand what all the pyramid fuss in Bosnia was about. If there really was a huge pyramid, larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt, in Bosnia, then I wanted the opportunity to study it. On the other hand, if there were no pyramids in Bosnia, that would be important to know too. But how to get to Bosnia? The answer turned out to be easy. My friend and professional colleague, Dr. Colette M. Dowell, simply contacted the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation and Semir Osmanagic. Initial contact was followed up with emails and phone calls, and quickly we received an invitation to visit Visoko and see the “pyramids” for ourselves. We made the trip to Bosnia during July and August 2006.

The afternoon we arrived in Bosnia, Osmanagic insisted on taking us straightaway to the so-called “Pyramid of the Sun.” I observed the excavated areas of huge stone blocks; blocks that I was told were most definitely not natural. Clearly, Osmanagic insisted, they were man-made concrete blocks that cannot be explained geologically, put into place with a sophisticated ancient technology that has now been lost. Amazingly, he explained, the “concrete” blocks proved to be harder and more durable than any modern concretes or cements. But he and I were apparently seeing different things, perhaps viewing an entirely different world. Where he saw concrete blocks and human intervention, I saw only perfectly natural sandstones and conglomerates that had broken into larger or smaller blocks due both to tectonic stresses and gravity slumping. For a week and a half this seemed to be the dominant theme: Osmanagic and others who worked with and for him insisting that this or that feature can never occur in nature, and thus must be artificial and human-made, versus me finding a perfectly reasonable geological explanation for each of the same features.

The geology around Visoko is incredibly rich, and I suggested to Osmanagic that, in lieu of “pyramids,” he might redefine his “Archaeological Park” as a “Geological-Archaeological Park” and focus more on the geology. Visocica Hill (the one dubbed “Pyramid of the Sun”) and Pljesevica Hill (“Pyramid of the Moon”) are composed of layers of sandstone, clay, mudstone, siltstone, and conglomerates apparently deposited in an ancient lake and river system during Miocene times (about 5.3 to 23 million years ago). The rocks have been tilted and bent due to tectonic stresses. The tectonic forces plastically deformed the clays and mudstones, but the sandstones and conglomerates broke into semi-regularly shaped pieces that Osmanagic and his team have excavated in numerous places, interpreting them as “pavements,” “terraces,” “concrete blocks,” “foundation stones,” and so forth. Interestingly, and tellingly, the sizes of the sandstone and conglomerate blocks found are a function of the thickness of the original rock layers. Thin sandstone layers, stressed tectonically, broke into small blocks while thick and durable conglomerate layers broke into massive blocks. This is exactly the pattern expected among natural rock formations. The sandstones also typically preserve various sedimentary and depositional features, such as ripple marks and the traces of ancient burrowing animals. These same rocks are also rich in paleontology. In some of the sandstone layers, and in many of the mudstone layers, I found large accumulations of fossil leaf debris and even some fairly complete Miocene fossil leaves. I believe that the real treasure of Visoko may be a huge fossil biota just waiting to be uncovered, not some imaginary pyramids.

While wondering the streets of Visoko, being offered all sorts of pyramid souvenirs, from tee shirts to copper plates bearing depictions of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (stylistically rendered either as a stepped Mayan-style pyramid or, less frequently, as a smooth-sided Giza-style pyramid), I continued to hope against hope that I could find some “truth” underlying the “pyramid mania” that has gripped the region. One last possibility might be the evidence of the reputed tunnels found in the area that supposedly connect one pyramid to another. We had the opportunity to explore one tunnel that is currently open; to put it mildly, I was disappointed with what I saw. The tunnel had clearly been entered and modified in recent times, as evidenced by the graffiti found in places, the collapsed ceilings and walls, and the stories that the Yugoslavian army (Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the former Yugoslavia) had once used the tunnels for military purposes, and possibly purposefully destroyed parts of them. If this was an ancient tunnel, it was difficult to tell now. The much-touted “ancient inscriptions” seem not to be ancient at all. I was told by a reliable source that the inscriptions were not there when members of the “pyramid team” initially entered the tunnels less than two years ago. The “ancient inscriptions” had been added since, perhaps non-maliciously, or perhaps as a downright hoax.

So, no pyramids, but there are many fascinating and genuine archaeological wonders in Bosnia. On the summit of Visocica Hill, which overlooks Visoko, are the remains of a medieval fort built on top of Roman ruins, and there is also evidence of Neolithic occupation of the hill, dating back perhaps 5,000 years. While in Bosnia we also visited megalithic ruins attributed to the Illyrians (circa 4th century B.C.), a possible Paleolithic cave (unfortunately, we had neither the time nor equipment to enter it; I would love to return and explore it), and fascinating medieval cemetery monuments to the dead.

Despite my failure to validate the Bosnian pyramid dreams, Semir Osmanagic and all the members of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation were most gracious hosts. They spared no effort to make sure that I could view all aspects of the so-called pyramids, even arranging for me to take a short airplane ride to see them from the air. Bosnia is a beautiful country with amazing scenery and a rich history. The people are extremely friendly and hospitable, and Bosnia exhibits a wonderful mixture of Western (Austro-Hungarian) and Eastern (Turkish and Islamic) traditions. Even in the absence of pyramids, it is certainly a country worth visiting.

Stonehenges on both sides of the Atlantic

By Robert M. Schoch
Boston University


North of Boston, near North Salem, New Hampshire, is a labyrinth of megalithic stones that have been the object of wonder and a topic of heated argument for more than two centuries. Sprawling over a couple of dozen acres are found stone walls and various structures that at first glance look like building foundations, cellars, tunnels, and caves - - all composed of laid stone, sometimes still in natural shapes and sometimes roughly worked. The largest placed stone has been estimated at eleven tons. Parts of the complex have been given evocative names, for example, the “Oracle Chamber” and the “Sacrificial Table.” Large erected stones on the periphery of the complex are aligned with significant astronomical positions such as the sunrise and sunset on the equinox, mid-summer and mid-winter sunrises and sunsets, and apparently various lunar motions and stellar alignments, some of which appear to date to the second millennium B.C. This is the site variously known as “Mystery Hill,” “Mystery Hill Caves,” or since the 1980s as “America’s Stonehenge.”

What is “America’s Stonehenge”? Superficially it bears little similarity to the Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain of England. How old is America’s Stonehenge? Who built it and why? What was it originally like? These are all unanswered questions, but many answers have been proposed.

Solid historical records of America’s Stonehenge date back to the early nineteenth century when Jonathan Pattee lived on and at the site from 1826 to 1855. Pattee and his family used parts of the structure as foundations for buildings and as root cellars, and some people have suggested that Pattee and his five sons built the structures. But, based on one of the stones that is surrounded by a tree stump that began growing in 1769, at least part of the structure must date prior to Pattee’s time. In modern times a number of charcoal samples have been collected from the site, in more or less close approximation to the stone structures, and radiocarbon analyses have yielded dates from historical times to around 2,000 B.C.

Since Pattee’s time, the site has had a checkered history. It was used as a ready quarry (not unlike the Great Pyramid in Egypt during Muslim times), and the structures were dismantled and rock carried away to build local foundations, churches, and other buildings. It is estimated that perhaps 40% of the rock was removed during the nineteenth century.

In the 1890s a professor of architecture at Dartmouth College, Hugh Morrisson, argued that Native Americans who had no tradition of such stone building could not have erected the structures. In 1936/7 William B. Goodwin purchased the property, carried out various excavations and studies, and promoted the view that Culdee Monks from Ireland had circa 1000 A.D. crossed the Atlantic, settled in New Hampshire, and built the site. In the 1950s the area came under the control of Robert E. Stone who first leased and then purchased “Mystery Hill.” In 1958 Stone opened the site to the public, and he initiated a still-ongoing program of serious study, documentation, excavation, and restoration of the site.

Numerous researchers have become involved with, or offered interpretations of, America’s Stonehenge. Opinions range from the notion that it is, after all, simply colonial foundations and root cellars, to linking it to ancient European cultures, such as those that constructed megalithic buildings in Malta and Greece, to thinking in terms of a medieval influx of Europeans across the Atlantic (variations on the themes of Norse warriors or Irish Monks), to attributing the sighting stones constructions to ancient Native Americans. The late Barry Fell, in particular, popularized the concept that some of the stones found at America’s Stonehenge (and many found elsewhere as well) contain cryptic inscriptions written in various Celtic or Gaelic (Ogham), Iberian, and Phoenician scripts, giving clues as to potential builders, or at least visitors to, the site (see Fell’s book, America B.C.). Other researchers have countered that the so-called inscriptions are simply plow marks, root remains, or natural erosion features in the stone.

I am convinced that there was contact between the Old and New Worlds in pre-Columbian times, but I would not hang the case on America’s Stonehenge. I have had the opportunity to explore the site firsthand, and I do not know what to make of it. I tend to think it is not all of one piece - - that is, it may be a mixture of modern (eighteenth and nineteenth century) and ancient structures, but even among the ancient portions I could find no definitive evidence of non-Native American influence. In some ways America’s Stonehenge is a microcosm of the general arguments often encountered in archaeology where the hard evidence is just too sparse to come to a definitive conclusion. It may seem like a copout, but in the case of America’s Stonehenge I rather not judge until, and unless, some compelling evidence is discovered that can be used to firmly attribute and date it.

Turning to the “real” Stonehenge in England, which definitely is thousands of years old and astronomically aligned, new theories and developments continue to be proposed. Last year (2005) Timothy Darvill, professor of archaeology at Bournemouth University, and archaeologist Geoff Wainwright announced that they had found the exact quarry from which the bluestones of Stonehenge were taken over 4,000 years ago. Site of the quarry: Carn Menyn, a mountain in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, in southwest Wales. This meant, according to their interpretation, that huge monoliths had been quarried and moved some 240 miles to the site of Stonehenge, a truly incredible feat. But just this month (June 2006), geologists from the Open University using geochemical analyses, led by Professor Olwen Williams-Thorpe, have countered that the bluestones used to construct Stonehenge were not moved over two hundred miles by humans, but brought the distance by Ice Age glaciers and then utilized by ancient humans. Even if this proves to be the case, and as a geologist it certainly makes sense to me, it was still a truly monumental feat to carve the bluestones and erect them as the magnificent structure that we see today.

The Crowned Dragon of China and New Archaeological Finds in the Americas

By Robert M. Schoch
Boston University


The discovery of a new species of dinosaur was reported earlier this year (February 2006) from 160 million-year-old fossil beds of northwest China. The scientific name, Guanlong wucaii, meaning in Chinese “Crowned Dragon,” is apt since this relatively small bipedal dinosaur (it stood about three and a half feet tall, and had an overall length of about ten feet) carried on its head a large complex crest, perhaps brightly colored when the animal was alive, which may have been used in behavioral displays to either attract, or perhaps threaten, other members of its species. The Crowned Dragon was probably covered in simple feathers, as is known to have been the case for other members of its taxonomic group, not for flight but as protection and insulation. As a side note, the close connection between certain dinosaurs and birds is now generally recognized, and indeed if you eat a chicken or turkey, you are effectively eating a little dinosaur-form of animal.

But what makes the Crowned Dragon so exciting to some paleontologists, and members of the general public, is that it is apparently a primitive form of tyrannosaur, that group made famous in the popular eye by the fierce Tyrannosaurus rex who roamed western North America about 70 million years ago. Although hailed by some reporters as the ancestor of T. rex, the Crowned Dragon was much more likely a member of a primitive side branch of tyrannosaurs, sort of a distant cousin tens of millions of generations removed. Still, the Crowned Dragon is certainly related to North American T. rex, but it is found in China. What is going on? Back then the continents and oceans were in different positions, global climatic patterns were not the same as today, and dinosaurs were free to roam from one region of the world to another, regions that are now separated by oceans or mountain ranges.

Jump forward to modern times - - well, modern times from a geological perspective. The continents and oceans are positioned as we know them, and many a mainstream archaeologist has suggested, or simply assumed, that there was no connection between the classical Old World and the civilizations of the New World for the very simple reason that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans posed impenetrable barriers to contact and cross fertilization until Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492. Over the years a number of scholars have questioned this dogma, including yours truly (in my book Voyages of the Pyramid Builders), yet old and entrenched ideas die slowly. But why am I bringing this topic up? I cannot help think about it as I review a few new archaeological discoveries from the Americas that have just been made public (May 2006).

A thirty-ton monolith (twenty-five feet wide, thirteen feet high, and sixteen inches thick), dated to circa 900 B.C., with enigmatic carvings on it, has been reported from the newly opened archaeological site of Tamtoc, about 550 miles northeast of Mexico City. So far the “Mexican Monolith” has been interpreted as possibly a lunar calendar, but it also contains symbols that have apparently never been seen in the Americas before. Some experts are suggesting that perhaps it is an Olmec carving, or at least related to the Olmecs. The Olmecs formed an early civilization that originated around 1100 B.C. further south in what are now the areas of Veracruz and Tabasco. But where did the Olmec people come from? This has long been a mystery. One distinct possibility, which I discuss in Voyages, is that the Olmec civilization arose at least in part due to an influx of ancient Shang Chinese who crossed the Pacific during the twelfth millennium B.C. Shang pictographs have been identified on Olmec artifacts, most notably by the researcher Michael Xu (Central Oklahoma University), and there is a distinct Chinese tradition of a large group of Shang heading east into the Pacific, never to return to China. Furthermore, the Olmec were pyramid builders, and so were the ancient Chinese, and I believe there are distinct similarities evident between the ancient Chinese pyramids (including some found in the region of Mongolia) and those of the Olmecs. We might also point out that, among Olmec carvings, often on a gigantic scale, are faces that many people view as strikingly African; perhaps the Olmec culture was the original melting pot of races and peoples in America. So where do I suggest that scholars might look as they work to understand the carvings of the newly discovered Mexican Monolith? Ancient China!

There have been other exciting finds reported from South America in recent weeks. From northern Brazil (in the state of Amapa) stories of an “Amazon Stonehenge” have made the news. Reported to consist of 127 granite monoliths, each about ten feet high, arranged in circles in an open field, the structure may date anywhere from about 500 years ago to 2,000 years old. Preliminary work on the site suggests that the stones were used for astronomical observations, indicating a sophisticated interest in the skies, and blocks aligned relative to the winter solstice have been identified.

Also aligned with the solstices is a temple and observatory complex newly discovered in the Peruvian Andes, in the Rio Chillon Valley north of Lima. The observatory itself sits atop a thirty-three-foot high pyramid. On the site are large clay sculptures of animals and a disk bearing a face, along with incised drawings and paintings. Hailed as the oldest astronomical observatory yet identified in the Americas, it dates back some 4,200 years based on radiocarbon dating of burnt materials found in what is interpreted as an offering pit of the temple. Some of the experts are surprised to see evidence of such sophistication and advanced knowledge at such an early period in South American history. However, I am not surprised. Contemporaneously, advanced civilizations were flourishing in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in the Far East, so why not South America as well? We are all one species, and there may well have been cultural interchange, even if somewhat limited, across the oceans during that very early epoch. At the least, it is something to think about.

Archaeology and the Historical Jesus: Recent Developments

Craig A. Evans

A major driving force behind biblical archaeology in its early days were apologetics. In recent years these interests have been eclipsed by the new quest for context and meaning. By and large, this new quest has seen major advances on many fronts, especially where it concerns the historical Jesus.
In some cases discoveries touch directly on the story of Jesus as presented in the New Testament Gospels, such as in the 1961 discovery at Caesarea Maritima of the inscription that mentions Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, and perhaps (much more doubtfully) in the 1990 discovery in the vicinity of Jerusalem of an ossuary, whose inscription may contain the name of Caiaphas the high priest. One also thinks of the 1986 discovery of the first-century (BCE or CE) Galilee boat, which has answered some important general questions about this occupation and perhaps one or two very specific questions relating to Jesus and his disciples.
These discoveries are of great interest, to be sure, but of much greater significance are discoveries relating to travel, commerce, economy, social activities, and religious loyalties of the people of first-century Palestine, especially as these things relate to the inhabitants of Galilee.
Here might be mentioned three important areas of archaeological findings in recent years that shed light on aspects of the life of Jesus and the world in which he was active: (1) the Jewishness of Galilee, (2) the existence of pre-70 synagogue buildings, and (3) Jewish burial traditions.

1. The Jewishness of Galilee
One of the most important questions for studying Jesus in his environment asks how Jewish Galilee was in the early first century. Several books in the last decade or so have appeared that address this question in one way or another. Books by Mark Chancey, Sean Freyne, Richard Horsley, Eric Meyers, Marianne Sawicki, and James Strange, among others, immediately come to mind.
The discovery of numerous Greek inscriptions (and a few Latin inscriptions as well), along with a network of roads (for example, linking Caesarea on the Mediterranean and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee) and major Greco-Roman style buildings and city layouts, has led scholars to reassess the old, quaint notion of Galilee as a cultural and commercial backwater. The significance of the proximity of Sepphoris to Nazareth was immediately appreciated by scholars. It has become apparent that Jesus did not grow up place-bound, in a rustic, unsophisticated environment.
But in the excitement of assessing the implications of a Galilee now seen in a new light, in some circles there was a lack of recognition of just how Jewish much of Galilee was in the pre-70 period. Greco-Roman style urbanization and loyalty to the Torah were not mutually exclusive. The excavations of Sepphoris in the 1980s showed us how urban and wealthy the city of Sepphoris was, but the ongoing excavations of the 1990s and on into the twenty-first century have also shown us how Jewish the inhabitants of this city were in the time before 70.
The discovery of a number of miqvaoth (ritual immersion pools) and stone water pots (which resist ritual impurity; cf. John 2:6) points unmistakably to the Jewish presence. The absence of pork bones, pagan cultic buildings, and coin imprints and other icons offensive to Jewish sensibilities argue not only for a Jewish presence, but the near absence of a non-Jewish population. In short, the evidence thus far uncovered suggests that the people of Sepphoris were either Jewish or at least lived in a manner unobjectionable to Torah-observant Jews.
The upshot of these discoveries is that the intriguing hypothesis (advanced by John Dominic Crossan and a few scholars linked to the Jesus Seminar) that Jesus was influenced by Cynic philosophers resident in Sepphoris is greatly weakened. It is not altogether ruled out, but its plausibility is serious diminished. Moreover, recent excavations in Nazareth itself suggest that the assumption that Jesus and members of his family would in all probability (and perhaps of necessity) have worked in nearby Sepphoris is no longer so obvious. It appears that Nazareth had its own thriving economy—including building, if the evidence of the stone quarries tells us anything. The commercial and economic activities of Nazareth were more than adequate to keep the local residents fully occupied, with little need to seek out-of-town employment.
Ongoing excavations at other sites in Galilee, such as Cana, Capernaum, and Bethsaida lend additional support to the growing conviction that the Jewish population of Galilee embraced its historic faith and traditions. To be sure, Greek language and literature and Greco-Roman architecture were present in Galilee. But this presence co-existed with a people firmly committed to Jewish faith and practice. It is in this world that Jesus grew up and ministered.

2. Pre-70 Synagogue Buildings
The New Testament Gospels and book of Acts leave us with the impression that Jesus frequented Jewish synagogues and that these synagogues seem to have met in buildings designated for this purpose. There are more than fifty references to synagogues. Admittedly, some of these references could be simply to gatherings of Jewish people (which is what the Greek word synagoge actually means) and not necessarily to buildings themselves called synagogues. Howard Kee has argued this view in a series of studies. He suggests that the Gospel writers, especially the author of Luke-Acts, has anachronistically retrojected a post-70 reality into the earlier time of Jesus. Kee’s interpretation not only requires him to interpret the references to synagogue buildings in Josephus in the same manner (cf. J.W. 2.285-89; 7.44; Ant. 19.305) and ignore a clear reference in Philo (cf. Prob. 81-82), it also requires him to date the Theodotos Inscription (CIJ 1404), which thanks various persons for donating money for the building of the synagogue, to a time much later than the pre-70 period.
Archaeology offers this interpretation no support. Not only does the style of incising in the Theodotos Inscription suggest a Herodian date (probably early first century), but its discovery beneath the rubble of the 70-destruction of Jerusalem argues strongly for a pre-70 date. Moreover, the Berenike synagogue inscription from Cyrene of North Africa (SEG XVII 823) dates to the year 56 CE and Ehud Netzer has recently reported the discovery of a synagogue at Jericho, which was damaged by the earthquake of 31 BCE. Kee’s hypothesis has been convincingly rebutted by studies by Richard Oster and John Kloppenborg, who have reviewed the literary and archaeological evidence summarized above.
Even without the more problematic dating of the older, black basalt foundation beneath the ruins of the fourth-century synagogue at Capernaum and the synagogue ruins at Gamla, it seems clear from the archaeological evidence that synagogue buildings did indeed exist in the time of Jesus. Confident of this fact, we can study these early buildings for clarification of aspects of Jesus’ activity (such as seating arrangements, auxiliary rooms, furnishings, and the like). Moreover, this archaeological and inscriptional evidence lends import support to the historical accuracy of the portraits that the New Testament Gospels present.

3. Jewish Burial Traditions
Jewish burial traditions can potentially tell us much about the world of Jesus, and perhaps even clarify at one or two points his teaching and, even more significantly, clarify aspects of his death and burial. The discovery and analysis of hundreds of skeletons and skeletal remains have told us much about the health and longevity of the people. It gives us pause to discover that in a typical two or three generation burial crypt more than one half of the skeletons are of children. Indeed, in some cases two-thirds of the remains are of children. From data such as these, some historical anthropologists have speculated that as many as one fourth of the population in Jesus’ time was ill, injured, and in need of medical help on any given day. This grim possibility gives new meaning to the Gospels’ notice that crowds were attracted to Jesus, because he was known as a healer (e.g., Mark 3:10; 4:1; 5:27-28).
The Jewish practice of ossilegium, that is, the reburial of the bones of the deceased (see the books by E. M. Meyers and C. A. Evans), may explain Jesus’ cryptic remark to the would-be follower who requested that he first be allowed to “bury his father.” Jesus replies: “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Matt 8:22 = Luke 9:60). Byron McCane plausibly suggests that the man has requested delaying discipleship until he has reburied his father’s bones. Jesus has not urged the man to ignore his dying father. Rather, Jesus urges him to allow the dead (i.e., the dead relatives in the family crypt) to see to the final burial of the man’s dead father. Proclaiming the rule of God to the living takes precedence.
Jewish burial practices, including Jewish sensitivities regarding corpse impurity and the sacred duty to bury the dead, argue strongly against the novel theory proposed a decade ago that Jesus’ corpse may well have been unburied, either left hanging on the cross or perhaps was thrown in a ditch, exposed to animals as carrion. It has been pointed out that hundreds, if not thousands, of Jews who were crucified during war time or insurrection were left unburied. This is true, but Jesus was crucified during peace time. It is inconceivable that the bodies of Jesus and the other men would have been left unburied just outside the walls of Jerusalem, during Passover season. The grim discovery in an ossuary of the remains of Yehohanan, in whose right heel bone an iron spike was found, dated to the late 20s of the first century, is graphic evidence that Pontius Pilate permitted the crucified to be buried and sometime later the bones to be gathered and placed in an ossuary in the family crypt—all according to Jewish burial customs.
The remains of two or three other persons executed and then properly buried have also been found. In a tomb from Giv‘at ha-Mivtar in Jerusalem the skeleton of a woman who had been decapitated have been found. In another tomb in Jerusalem, on Mount Scopus, the skeleton of man who had been beheaded was found. Forensic study of these remains indicate that his head was taken off with two strokes or either a sword or axe. The significance of this evidence is that proper burial was permitted even in cases of capital punishment—which is exactly what the Gospels say with respect to Jesus.
Jewish burial practice may also shed light on the reasons why the women returned to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning. Evidently their motivation was to perfume Jesus’ body, so that the seven days of mourning could take place. Making note of which tomb contained Jesus’ body (for he was in a tomb reserved for criminals—not in his family’s tomb) they hoped eventually to gather the bones of Jesus and take them to his family’s place of burial. Accordingly, the women took special interest in the tomb. Finding the body removed would, therefore, have occasioned great consternation and not necessarily thoughts of resurrection. The appearances of Jesus, as well as the reality of the empty tomb, convinced his followers and he was indeed resurrected and was not simply a ghost or a vision.
Postscript: The recent hypothesis put forward by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino that the East Talpiot tomb south of Jerusalem, accidentally discovered and hastily excavated in 1980 by Yosef Gat and Amos Kloner, contained the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and various family members has been endorsed by no recognized archaeologist. The high quality tomb, complete with an impressive pointed gable and rosette over the entrance, which symbolize the Jewish temple, probably belonged to a wealthy, aristocratic Jerusalem family, with ties to the temple. Many of the claims and conclusions advanced by Jacobovici and Pellegrino are erroneous and in some cases highly misleading and deceptive.

Craig A. Evans is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, and author of Jesus and His Contemporaries (Brill, 1995) and Jesus and the Ossuaries (Baylor University Press, 2003). He is also a contributor to Jesus and Archaeology, ed. J. J. Charlesworth (Eerdmans, 2006).

Bibliography
Chancey, Mark A. The Myth of a Gentile Galilee (SNTSMS 118; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991).
—. Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995).
Evans, Craig A. Jesus and the Ossuaries (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2003).
—. “Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus,” JSHJ 3 (2005) 233-48.
Freyne, Sean. Galilee and Gospel: Collected Essays (WUNT 125; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000).
—. Galilee from Alexander the Great to Hadrian 323 BCE to 135 CE: A Study of Second Temple Judaism (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998).
—. Galilee, Jesus and the Gospels: Literary Approaches and Historical Investigations (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988).
Kee, Howard Clark. “The Transformation of the Synagogue after 70 C.E.: Its Import for Early Christianity,” NTS 36 (1990) 1-24.
—. “The Changing Meaning of Synagogue: A Response to Richard Oster,” NTS 40 (1994) 281-83.
—. “Defining the First-Century C Synagogue: Problems and Progress,” NTS 41 (1995) 481-500.
Kloppenborg, John S. “Dating Theodotos (CIJ 1404),” JJS 51 (2000) 243-80.
McCane, Byron R. “‘Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead’: Secondary Burial and Matt 8:21-22,” HTR 83 (1990) 31-43.
Meyers, Eric M., ed. Galilee through the Centuries: Confluence of Cultures (Duke Judaic Studies 1; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999).
—. Jewish Ossuaries: Reburial and Rebirth (BibOr 24; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute Press, 1971).
Nagy, R. M., C. L. Meyers, E. M. Meyers, and Z. Weiss, eds. Sepphoris in Galilee: Crosscurrents of Culture (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996).
Oster, Richard E. “Supposed Anachronism in Luke–Acts’ Use of synagoge: A Rejoinder to H. C. Kee,” NTS 39 (1993) 178-208.
Sawicki, Marianne. Crossing Galilee: Architectures of Contact in the Occupied Land of Jesus (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000).
Strange, James F. Archaeology, the Rabbis and Early Christianity, with Eric M. Meyers (London: SCM Press, 1981).

Archaeological Evidence for First-century Synagogues in Ancient Judaea

Dr. James F. Strange PhD



In Israel there are ancient structures at Gamala, Capernaum (beneath the white limestone synagogue), Qiryat Sefer, Masada, Jericho, Modi'in, and Herodium. The archaeologists who unearthed these buildings have identified them as synagogues of the first century CE. These halls resemble later synagogues recognized as such from their Jewish art and from dedicatory inscriptions in Greek or Aramaic that actually identify the buildings as "synagogues."
But are the first century examples actually synagogues? After all, they do not seem to contain Jewish art, nor do they have inscriptions identifying them as such.
There are at least five reasons to identify these seven possible synagogues as the real thing:

1. These buildings organize innermost space in a similar manner, namely, it is rectangular and surrounded on three or four sides by rows of columns, then by ranges of benches on two, three, or four sides.

2. One must use the benches as steps to move from the top bench or landing to the floor. This calls to mind a saying of Jesus in Mark 12:39 and parallels that excoriates the Scribes for preferring the "first seats" in synagogues, presumably on the top rank.

3. Worshipers sitting or standing on the benches must look through a balustrade of columns to see what is going on centrally. This is echoed in the construction of the Diaspora synagogues at Priene in Greece and at Ostia in Italy.

4. The “Jewishness” of these structures is not given by art or inscriptions, but by their presence in a Jewish town or village, or even in a Jewish fortress.

5. Although parts of these buildings resemble structures in the Roman Empire, their total organization is novel. The closest analog is the ancient basilica, but the basilicas we know are far larger than most of these buildings. These buildings resemble one another more than anything else. The commonality between them also suggests strongly that their builders were seeing some structure or structures that gave them the extraordinary idea of arranging seating between the columns and the walls. I believe that "something else" to be the stoa on the temple Mount in Jerusalem.
That is, the space from wall to columns is in effect a porch or stoa. Two porches running parallel with a roof on top is a basilica, as is usually reconstructed on the south side of the Temple court in Jerusalem, following Josephus. The first century synagogues that we have found tend to model themselves after Israel's holiest shrine.These structures surely represent those mentioned by Josephus and by the New Testament authors and situated in the Holy Land in the first century CE

The Cave of John the Baptist

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science




John the Baptist was a fiery preacher for the Lord and would prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. Many came to listen to him and would be baptized by him. In Matthew 3 it speaks about how John was preparing the way for Jesus. John was letting people know that he was coming and that he was the messiah. Later John baptizes Jesus and when Jesus rose up out of the water the heavens split and the spirit of God came down upon Jesus like a dove. In Matthew 14:3-12 it talks about the beheading of John.

Two and a half years ago, Biblical Archaeology Review found what they believe to be the cave of John the Baptist. It all started when Reuven Kalifon, an immigrant from Cleveland who teaches Hebrew at the kibbutz, took some of his students spelunking back when it was still filled with mud and sediment. Kalifon asked Shimon Gibson, who was a friend of his, to take a better look at it. Gibson crawled into the hole and moved a few boulders near the walls to uncover a carving of a head. After seeing this, he organized a full-scale excavation.
During the next five years, the team of excavators cleared out layers of soil and the remnants of 250,000 broken jugs that were supposedly used in purification rituals. They also uncovered an oval shaped stone with a carved out indent in the shape of a right foot. Above the indent on the rock is another indent with a channel connecting the two. This is believed to be a foot baptismal where the oil goes into the indent above the foot and someone sticks their foot into the foot shaped indent while the oil runs over it. This could represent the time when Jesus washed the disciples feet before the passover meal. (John 13)

The cave is located on the communal farm of Kibbutz Tzuba. Kibbutz Tzuba is 2.5 miles away from Ein Kerem; the home village of John the Baptist. The cave was carved into the limestone hill that it resides in by the Israelites during the Iron Age, which was sometime between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. The cave's dimensions are 72 feet long, 12 feet deep, and 12 feet wide.[1]
You can view pictures taken of the cave here.
Annotated Bibliography

"John the Baptist's Cave???." Biblical Archaeology Review 30.6 (2004): 18-19 - This article speaks about a cave found near Ain Karim; the hometown of John the Baptist. It describes some objects and inscriptions found in the cave along with describing the cave itself.
Shimon Gibson and James Tabor. "John the Baptist's Cave." Biblical Archaeology Review 31.3 (2005): 36-41,58 - This article is a follow up from the 2004 Nov/Dec article "John the Baptist's Cave???". It lets you make up your own mind by giving you the facts from both sides. It gives evidence to support the claim that it is the cave of John the Baptist, but it also gives evidence to reject that claim.

Cave linked to John the Baptist - This article talks about findings in the cave, how it was found, and what they believe it to be. In this article, they go a lot more in depth than any of the other articles. "Scholars Say John the Baptist Used This Cave For Immersions."New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 17, 2004. pg. A.9 - Carvings on the walls and ceilings are believed to depict John's life. In the back of the cave there is a pool that was believed to be an immersion pool used to baptise new believers.