"The European Space Agency (ESA) has uncovered relics of lost continents that have hidden under Antarctica for millions of years." Source: Daily Mail.
"Satellite images reveal a timeline of the ancient landmasses buried a mile (1.6 km) beneath the icy continent.
"Scientists said the snaps shed new light on Antarctica, the 'least understood continent on Earth'."
One example of the strange phenomena found in Antarctica.
Comment: These fools are meddling with forces they can't possibly understand. If they don't leave well enough alone, they could end up opening vistas of Space and Time that will drive the world mad.
It's a very bad idea to delve too deeply into these lost continents. Back in 1930, the geologist William Dyer, one of the few survivors of a disastrous Miskatonic University expedition to Antarctica (story here), tried to warn future expeditions to stay away from the region, but they didn't listen and now it's only a matter of time before these bumbling scientists uncover ... things ... too hideous to contemplate.
This 30-minute animated movie describing the basics of what happened to the Miskatonic expedition is nicely done. Closed captions in English available.
For the full story of the expedition, the best source is the original version published in 1931. There are a lot of different editions available, many of them of dubious quality, but one of the best can be found in a Library of America anthology brought out in 2005. Highly recommended for everyone who cares about the future of the planet.
"In the library of a famous Ivy League college rests an illuminated manuscript book, hundreds of pages long. No one knows how old it is, where it comes from, who wrote it, or what it is about. A monarch is believed to have bought it for a fabulous sum from a notorious practitioner of the black arts, after which it disappeared for centuries. Its illustrations are pictures of unidentifiable plants and incomprehensible scientific diagrams. The test is in an unknown script which some of the world's best codebreakers have been unable to decipher. The language of the script is also unknown, but computer analysis shows that the manuscript is written in no known human tongue." -- from the introduction to "The Voynich Manuscript for Beginners," by Richard Newmanson.
The Voynich Manuscript has been described as "the most mysterious book in the world." Its author and the date of its composition are unknown -- along with everything else about it -- but the medieval manuscript is probably(1) authentic and entropy analysis (PDF) of the text reveals that the book is highly organized and doesn't just consist of random gibberish. It may be an alchemical text or a Cathar bible (specifically a few books from the Bible) used for ritual purposes, but this is all speculation at this point. Whatever it is, the book was encrypted using a complicated and still unknown code, possibly to hide its contents from the Inquisition.
The short book by Richard Newmanson cited above gives a concise but relatively complete overview of the Voynich Manuscript. Highly recommended. Judging by the illustrations, the book appears to be divided into several sections dealing with herbs, astronomy, cosmology, biology, pharmaceuticals and recipes, but Newmanson points out the possibility that the figures may simply have been inserted in order to obfuscate the actual contents of the manuscript. The fact that no one knows what language was used to write the book makes it extremely difficult to break its code, but lots of people are working on it and every now and then someone will announce that the mystery has been solved.
The book has attracted a lot of attention and speculation, but as far as I can tell the text is still a mystery. Some experts have suggested that it was written by Roger Bacon or the notorious occultist John Dee, but no one really knows for sure (2). Considering its apparent medieval origin, the manuscript is likely alchemical or perhaps Rosicrucian.
(2) "Like its contents, the history of ownership of the Voynich manuscript is contested and filled with some gaps. The codex belonged to Emperor Rudolph II of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor, 1576-1612), who purchased it for 600 gold ducats and believed that it was the work of Roger Bacon. It is very likely that Emperor Rudolph acquired the manuscript from the English astrologer John Dee (1527-1608). Dee apparently owned the manuscript along with a number of other Roger Bacon manuscripts." Source: Yale University Library.
"The hoax hypothesis can’t be ruled out," according to The New Yorker (2013). "But if the Voynich is a fake, it’s an elaborate one. A twentieth-century scam artist would have to have located a hundred and twenty sheets of blank six-hundred-year-old vellum in anticipation of the invention of radiocarbon dating (which did not yet exist when the manuscript first reëmerged, in 1912). Scholars remain deeply divided over the question of whether the text is likely to be meaningful. But the distribution of letters and words is anything but random, even demonstrating statistical features generally associated with natural-language texts—features that weren’t discovered until the nineteen-thirties."
My favorite theory about the Voynich Manuscript is that it is either the real version of the Necronomicon invented by H.P. Lovecraft or that it inspired Lovecraft and other fantastic writers such as Arthur Machen. This is all fictional, though. "The link between those two mysterious manuscripts - Voynich’s book and the Necronomicon - was first hypothesized in the Cthulhu Mythos fiction of the English author and critic Colin Wilson," according to Daniel Harms (1998). Unfortunately, the Voynich MS is only a couple hundred pages long -- too short to be the Necronomicon - and linguistic analysis has shown that it wasn't originally written in Latin or any Arabic language.
Personally, I hope that the Voynich Manuscript is never decrypted. If it is, the book will probably turn out to be yet another medieval grimoire and lose all of its mystery.
Related:The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript Has Finally Been Decoded. According to this 2017 Ars Technica article, one researcher claims that the book is "mostly a plagiarized guide to women's health, " but "[s]cholars have started to debunk these claims about the Voynich manuscript, noting that the [researcher's] translation 'makes no sense' and that a lot of the so-called original findings were done by other researchers."
"Seven sarcophagi, some dating back more than 6,000 years, have been discovered at a site on the edge of the pyramid complex in Saqqara, south of the Egyptian capital, archaeology officials announced Saturday." Source: AFP.
"...Three of the tombs had been used for cats ... while one of four other sarcophagi discovered at the site belonged to Khufu-Imhat, overseer of the buildings in the royal palace."
According to Ahram Online, "...that the [archaeological] mission uncovered three plain New Kingdom tombs that had been used during the Late Period as a cat necropolis, along with four other Old Kingdom tombs, the most important of which belongs to Khufu-Imhat, the overseer of the buildings in the royal palace."
A French-British archaeological mission from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology and the UK's Liverpool University have discovered ancient engravings alabaster quarries in Tel El-Amarna that could help reveal how ancient Egyptians managed to move stone blocks from alabaster quarries during the Khufu period" Source: Ahram Online.
Note: This short notice in Ahram Online doesn't provide any specific details about the engraving.
"The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep IV [aka the 'Heretic King'], who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Aten was worshipped over all other gods. Aten was not solely worshipped (the religion was not monotheistic), but the other gods were worshipped to a significantly lesser degree. The Egyptian pantheon of the equality of all gods and goddesses was restored under Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamun." Source: Wikipedia.
"Most students of ancient Egyptian are aware that the Artwork composed during the Amarna Period under Akhenaten differs markedly from that of other periods in Egyptian history, One of the most visible changes in the art of this period was the manner in which human figures were depicted, specifically their proportions and at its most extreme in that of the king." Source: Tour Egypt.
King Tut's father, Amenhotep IV, was a mystic and religious revolutionary who turned his back on the traditional Egyptian gods -- not to mention the powerful priesthood associated with them -- and decreed that Aten, the sun god, was the only god who could be worshipped in the country. Known as the "heretic pharoah," Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and built a new capitol city at Amarna north of Thebes, forcibly relocating the population of Thebes to populate his new city.
Akhenaten dedicated Armana to the worship of the deified disk of the sun and set himself up as the leader of the new monotheistic cult, living in splendid isolation and basically ignoring the defense and administration of Egypt. His neglect (and later persecution) of the other gods created a lot of enemies. Cities like Thebes--and the priests who controlled them--owed their wealth and political power to their temples, which attracted both private and official benefactions. Akhenaten's revolution wasn't just religious, but also political and economic. My impression is that he was oblivious to the disastrous effects his revolution--and his isolation--had on the rest of his country.
Akhenaten's neglect of the ordinary affairs of Egypt led to its decline and threatened its security. Near the end of his reign, other empires like the Hittites were encroaching on Egyptian territory. When Akhenaten died around 1330 BC, his city at Amarna was destroyed and depopulated and the new rulers began a comprehensive program to restore the traditional gods and their sacred cities.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is that religious fanatics, idealists and true believers, no matter how inspired, make bad leaders. Akhenaten is a classic example.
"Israel's national museum [has opened] what it calls the world's first exhibition devoted to the architectural legacy of biblical King Herod, the Jewish proxy monarch who ruled Jerusalem and the Holy Land under Roman occupation two millennia ago." Source: Archaeology News Network (2013).
Update (2018) - I think this exhibit closed down in 2014, but a virtual tour can still be found on the museum's website. The page should be in English, but if it isn't, the English version can be selected on the exhibit's home page. When it first opened in 2013, the exhibit caused a lot of controversy when the Palestinians charged the Israelis with taking artifacts from the West Bank without permission from Palestinian authorities.
Notes: There were actually two biblical King Herods during the period covered by the New Testament accounts, but this exhibit is about Herod the Great, who was king when Jesus was supposedly born. Herod's son, Herod Antipas, was king during the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus.
The Career Of Herod The Great
Herod the Great (~73-4 BC) was made governor of Galilee by his father, Antipater, in 47 BC, and later appointed tetrarch (ruler) by the famous Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius). After the Parthian invasion (40 BC), Antony and the Roman senate named Herod the king of Judea and later gave him more territories northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Herod had a good working relationship with the Romans until he fell out of favor with Augustus for murdering several members of his family and staging an unauthorized war against the Nabateans (North Arabia) in 9 BC. (Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary, OCD, 3rd ed. revised)
The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenism through Palestine and the influence of foreign philosophies and religions created conflicts with the orthodox Jewish classes, especially the priesthood. Herod the Great, I think, could be called a Hellenized Jew, though Romanized might be more accurate for that period. Despite this, he had good relations with the priests for most of his career, probably because "...he promoted a new high-priestly class, centered on a handful of diaspora families, who thus acquired great wealth and standing." (OCD) In other words, he elevated new priests to to positions of wealth and power in order to ensure their loyalty.
Herod carried out a lot of major building projects, including the construction of an artificial harbor at Caesarea, an amphitheater and theater (in the Graeco-Roman style), and the rebuilding of the Temple. According to the OCD, "[l]avish donations outside Palestine established Herod as a benefactor on an empire-wide scale, as well as a flamboyant philhellene; the Olympian games and the city of Athens were among the beneficiaries."
The anti-Roman Jewish insurgent groups of Herod's time would have seen him as a despicable puppet king surrounded by bribed lackey-priests, a traitor who was subverting Jewish customs and religion and suppressing the province for the benefit of the hated Roman occupiers. Jewish nationalists and the early Christians, who also hated Herod, were probably responsible for most of the anti-Herod propaganda that has come down to us today.
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great was responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents -- the murder of all newborn male children in and around Bethlehem -- when he received word that Jesus had been born. This notorious incident almost certainly never happened. There are no other sources for it other than in one book of the New Testament, but that hardly matters. The story is ludicrous on the face of it and can be safely dismissed as atrocity propaganda.
Herod could be ruthless, but his reputation as a bloodthirsty tyrant must be exaggerated considering the length and stability of his reign. Towards the end of his career he murdered one of his wives, her two sons and his oldest son, but those killings were probably a reaction to the usual palace intrigues found in every royal family. Herod was apparently a good administrator and he must have been reasonably intelligent and prudent to maintain the confidence of someone like Augustus for so long. Unless he went completely crazy in his old age, I really doubt if Herod would have ordered the murder of a bunch of civilian infants in response to yet another wild rumor about yet another coming Messiah. That story makes no sense at all.
Herod is thought to have died in 4 BC. According to Josephus, his death was extremely painful. "Based on Josephus' descriptions, one medical expert has diagnosed Herod's cause of death as chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene. Similar symptoms accompanied the death of his grandson Agrippa I in 44 CE." (Wikipedia) Josephus also records that Herod's suffering led him to attempt suicide and "[m]odern scholars agree Herod suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia," according to Wikipedia.
Josephus' account of Herod's death is questionable, in my opinion. Josephus apparently hated the king and wanted to see him suffer for his alleged crimes. His description of Herod's death sounds like "just desserts" propaganda to me, but I suppose it could be true. As for modern day psychiatric diagnoses of Herod's "depression and paranoia," these can be dismissed because (1) psychohistory is nonsense, and (2) they must be based on the writings of Josephus and other ancient historians. They ignore the historical context of Herod's life as well. After all, if he was paranoid, he probably had good reason. The same thing could probably be said for all the rest of Rome's puppet kings, not to mention the emperors themselves and kings in general everywhere in the world.
This entertaining 2014 video clip was apparently filmed with a potato.
"Throughout the ages, even the simple act of telling the time has presented a huge challenge to humans that we've tried to solve with elaborate inventions. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians developed sundials and towering obelisks that would mark the time with a shadow that moved with the sun. Dating back to around 1500 B.C., humans produced hourglasses, water clocks and oil lamps, which calibrated the passing of hours with movements of sand, water and oil." Source: Live Science.
"Out of these early inventions came a few rudimentary attempts to create a morning alarm — such as candle clocks. These simplistic devices from ancient China were embedded with nails that were released as the wax melted away, leaving the nails to clatter loudly into a metal tray below at a designated time, waking the sleeper."
Note: These candle clocks were probably similar to the modern one shown in the next video. I'm guessing that the nails were embedded near the base of the candle.
"Clepsydra, also called water clock, ancient device for measuring time by the gradual flow of water. One form, used by the North American Indians and some African peoples, consisted of a small boat or floating vessel that shipped water through a hole until it sank. In another form, the vessel was filled with water that was allowed to escape through a hole, and the time was read from graduated lines on the interior measuring the level of the remaining water. It may have been an invention of the Chaldeans of ancient Babylonia; specimens from Egypt date from the 14th century bc. " Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Note: "The oldest water clock of which there is physical evidence (1) dates to c. 1417-1379 BCE, during the reign of Amenhotep III where it was used in the Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak. The oldest documentation of the water clock is the tomb inscription of the 16th century BCE Egyptian court official Amenemhet (2), which identifies him as its inventor. These simple water clocks, which were of the outflow type, were stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly constant rate from a small hole near the bottom ... These clocks were used by priests to determine the time at night so that the temple rites and sacrifices could be performed at the correct hour." Source: Wikipedia.
(1) Some experts believe water clocks were invented in China around 4,000 BC.
(2) I'm not sure about this, but I think the Amenemhet mentioned here was the High Priest of Amun during the 18th Dynasty.
Note: Widely used in the ancient world and middle ages, wax tablets or tabulae ceratae (cera = wax) were "thick pieces of wood usually of an oblong shape, covered over with wax," according to Lacus Curtius (LC).
"These tabulae were sometimes made of ivory and citron-wood [citrus? Thyine wood?] ... but generally of a wood of a more common tree, as the beech, fir, &c. The outer sides of the tablets consisted merely of the wood; it was only the inner sides that were covered over with wax. They were fastened together at the back by means of wires, which answered the purpose of hinges, so that they opened and shut like our books ..."
Wax tablets are still being manufactured and sold today, but I don't know of any writers who actually use them. The next video clip, from HBO's great series Rome, shows Octavian (the future Augustus) using a wax tablet to compile a list of political enemies to be executed. I suppose you could use a wax tablet for transient notes and so on, but they're a little large to carry around. The "laptops of the ancient world" do have one critical advantage over modern laptops, however, namely they don't have any distractions.
According to Wikipedia, "[t]he earliest surviving exemplar of a boxwood writing tablet with an ivory hinge was among the finds recovered from the 14th-century BCE Uluburun Shipwreck near Kaş in modern Turkey in 1986. This find further confirmed that the reference to writing tablets in Homer [?] was far from anachronistic. An archaeological discovery in 1979 in Durrës, Albania found two wax tablets made of ivory in a grave believed to belong to a money lender from the 2nd century CE."