Ancient World Review

Ancient Greek Ritual Animal Sacrifice

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, there were three stages in an ancient Greek sacrifice: the preparatory stage, the kill and the treatment of the meat:

Preparatory: An animal was led to the altar, usually in a procession. The participants assembled in a circle, rinsed their hands in lustral [purifying] water, and took a handful of barley grain from a basket. Water was sprinkled on the victim to force it to 'nod' agreement to its own sacrifice. The main sacrificer (not necessarily a priest) then cut hair from the victim, put it on the altar fire, and uttered a prayer which defined the return that was desired [...] for the offering. The other participants threw forwards their barley grains.

"The kill. The victim's throat was cut with a knife; larger victims had been stunned with a blow from an axe first. Women participants raised the cry known as ololyge [shrill cry]. In Attic practice, it was important to 'bloody the altar;' small animals were held over it to be killed, the blood from larger ones was caught in a bowl and poured over it."

Treatment of the meat. There were three stages to the treatment of the meat after the sacrifice. "First the god's portion, typically the thigh bones wrapped in fat with (in Homer) small portions of meat cut 'from all the limbs' set on top, was burnt on the altar fire. Wine was poured on as it burnt. [...] Then the entrails were roasted on skewers and shared among all the participants. Finally the rest of the meat was boiled and distributed [...]; in contrast to the entrails, this boiled meat was occasionally taken away for consumption at home, though a community feast on the spot was the norm. Omens were often taken both from the burning of the god's portion and from the condition of the entrails."

Comment: Blood sacrifice, especially animal sacrifice, was an integral part of religious practice all over the ancient world. This is something that modern "neopagans" don't seem to grasp. A true pagan revival would necessarily mean a revival of these ancient rituals and it would also mean dropping all of the "belief systems" of modern paganism.

Real pagan religions, especially in the Mediterranean region, were entirely ritualistic. They weren't dogmatic or ideological. For instance, adherents didn't have to subscribe to a particular set of teachings like they do with Christianity. They didn't have to be believers to sacrifice to the gods; that's why Roman aristocrats who thought the gods were just superstitions useful for controlling the masses could serve as priests without being hypocrites.

Modern neopagans will never take the step into real paganism, however. They're too "civilized," whatever that means, so they will never advance beyond the stage of role-playing when they get together at sites like Stonehenge to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view.

Related: How to make a sacrifice in ancient Rome.

Tomb Of Olympias, Alexander The Great's Mother, Discovered In Macedonia?

"A researcher claims to have identified the long-lost tomb of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. But other scholars are skeptical it's really her burial." Source: Live Science.

"Archaeologists first discovered the tomb in 1850, not far from the Greek archaeological site of Pydna. The tomb has been studied at times by archaeologists since then. Recently, Athanasios Bintas, an emeritus professor of Greek studies at the University of Niš in Serbia, examined the tomb and now says it was used to bury Olympias. Made of stone, the tomb is 72 feet (22 meters) long and contains multiple chambers. The tomb's design has led archaeologists to date it to the late fourth to early third century B.C. As the tomb was robbed in ancient times, no bodies or grave goods have been found inside."

Comment: This would be an amazing discovery if it's for real, but it probably isn't. Bintas' argument doesn't seem to be based on anything more than the tomb's size, age, location and some nearby inscriptions, now lost, which may have mentioned Olympias. Until he comes up with something more substantial, this is just speculation.

Foreign Eggheads: Pointy-Skulled Women In Medieval Bavaria Were Foreign Brides

Video from March 2018.

"The finding indicates that these long-headed brides, who lived in the sixth century A.D., likely traveled great distances from southeastern Europe — an area encompassing the region around modern-day Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia — to what is now the southern part of modern Germany." Source: Live Science (2018).

I'm not sure when these skulls were first unearthed. According to Live Science, "The discovery of the remains of these women perplexed archaeologists for decades. It's only possible to create pointy skulls, scientifically known as artificial cranial deformation (ACD), in early childhood, when the skull is soft and malleable. But archaeologists couldn't find any children with egg-shaped skulls in the cemetery. Moreover, the women were buried with local grave artifacts, rather than foreign ones, suggesting they had adapted to local culture.

"Egg-shaped skulls are perceived as the ideal of beauty in some cultures, and may be a sign of status or nobility, the researchers noted."

Related: Deformed, Pointy Skull From Dark Ages Unearthed In France (2013).

Anchor Church Caves Were The Home Of An Exiled Anglo-Saxon King

"A British cave dwelling has been identified as the refuge for an exiled Anglo-Saxon king, according to archaeologists." Source: Live Science.

"Anchor Church Caves, located by the River Trent in a secluded part of the countryside in central England, was long considered to be an 18th-century 'folly' — an extravagant building made solely for ornamentation or as a joke.

"But a new study has revealed that the cave house is the real deal. The 1,200-year-old structure was built during the tumultuous life of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf, who was hounded from his throne to live as a hermit, and later became a saint."

Video from 2019. If these new findings are correct, this guy is wrong when he says that the church dates back to 1820.

"Local legend said Eardwulf, or St. Hardulph [1] as he was later known, lived inside the cave dwelling after he was deposed and exiled for mysterious reasons in A.D. 806. A fragment from a 16th-century book states that Eardwulf ''has a cell in a cliff a little from the Trent,'' and the banished king was buried in A.D. 830 at a location just 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the cave."

[1] "Eardwulf is identified by historians with the Saint Hardulph or Hardulf, to whom the Mercian royal church of Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph at Breedon on the Hill [next video] is dedicated. The connection, though unproven, has been made by several historians and is uncontroversial. Supporting evidence comes from a twelfth-century list of the burial places of saints compiled at Peterborough. This calls the Saint Hardulph to whom Breedon was dedicated 'Hardulfus rex'—King Eardwulf—and states that he was buried at Breedon." (Wikipedia)

Why Weren't New World Rabbits Domesticated?

"Rabbits were raised for over a thousand years in Mexico without becoming domesticated. A new study finds that their solitary lifestyle and greater species diversity made domestication unlikely." Source: Science Daily.

"...Rabbits were buried at the Sun and Moon Pyramids and are found in the stomach contents of sacrificial carnivores, such as eagles and pumas. Rabbit bones found in the carnivore stomachs contain a type of carbon that indicates a diet unusually rich in corn or cactus, suggesting human-raised rabbits had, in turn, been fed to the carnivores."

New Analysis Reveals More About Tollund Man's Last Meal

"A re-analysis of the stomach contents belonging to a naturally mummified Iron Age man is providing new insights into his surprisingly nutritious final meal and compromised state of health." Source: Gizmodo.

"Tollund Man died around 400 BCE in what is now the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. He died by hanging, in what is believed to be a ritual sacrifice. His body was preserved in a Danish bog for 2,400 years, allowing for an analysis of his stomach contents."

Though not identified, I'm pretty sure the bog body featured here is Tollund Man.

"The new findings, published in Antiquity, suggest Tollund Man ate his final meal some 12 to 24 hours before his death and that it consisted of porridge and fish—both common dishes during the Danish Early Iron Age. It was a nutritious, likely tasty meal, but Tollund Man was not in the best of health, as he was infected with several parasites. The new research was led by archaeologist Nina Nielsen from the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark."

Cashel Man - One Of The Oldest Bog Bodies In The World

I believe this report is from 2011.

Notes: The bog-preserved remains of Cashel Man were discovered in 2011. According to Wikipedia, "Radiocarbon dating places the man as having died around 2000 BC, making him one of the oldest bog bodies in Europe" and the oldest in Ireland. He is also one of the oldest bog bodies in the world and the "oldest known preserved body with the flesh still intact."

According to the National Museum of Ireland, "The remains are those of a young adult male and wounds noted on the body suggest that one is dealing with a victim of human sacrifice ... In Ireland, the ritual killing of young men was previously known to have occurred during the Early Iron Age and the discovery of an Early Bronze Age victim, apparently killed in accordance with the same ritual, brings the practice back in date by at least a millennium and a half."

This ultra-dramatic clip (2013) from a National Geographic documentary describes the discovery of Cashel Man.

According to the BBC (2013), Cashel Man may be the body of an Irish king sacrificed because of his failure to cope with a natural disaster like a crop failure or plague. The evidence for this is missing, however. "It is uncertain whether Cashel Man was one of these unfortunate kings," according to Irish Central (2013). "A milling machine destroyed his chest when he was found and researchers cannot examine his nipples [which are apparently always mutilated in king sacrifices].

The Huldremose Woman - Ritual Sacrifice?

The Huldremose Woman probably didn't die a natural death. According to the National Museum of Denmark, "Her hair was tied up with a long woolen cord, which was also wrapped around her neck several times. However, there are no marks on her throat or elsewhere, which can be interpreted as signs of strangulation. Perhaps instead the cord was of symbolic significance? Strangled people are known from other Danish bog finds. This applies to, amongst others, the bodies from Elling and Borremose, and the famous Tollund Man [who was hung or otherwise strangled in an apparent human sacrifice]."

Note: According to the National Museum of Denmark, one of the Huldremose Woman's arms was almost cut off before she died, but according to Wikipedia "it is thought that the arm was damaged by a shovel during excavation." Nobody knows exactly how she died, but "one possible interpretation is that she was killed and then placed in the bog as a sacrifice." (National Museum of Denmark)

Related: A thread to the past: the Huldremose Woman revisited (PDF).

 

The Collection Of The National Museum Of Denmark

"The museum covers 14,000 years of Danish history, from the reindeer-hunters of the Ice Age, Vikings, and works of religious art from the Middle Ages, when the church was highly significant in Danish life. Danish coins from Viking times to the present and coins from ancient Rome and Greece, as well as examples of the coinage and currencies of other cultures, are exhibited also. The National Museum keeps Denmark's largest and most varied collection of objects from the ancient cultures of Greece and Italy, the Near East and Egypt. For example, it holds a collection of objects that were retrieved during the Danish excavation of Tell Shemshara in Iraq in 1957." (Wikipedia)

Current exhibitions at the National Museum of Denmark as of July 25, 2021.

1500-Year-Old Visigoth Sarcophagus Discovered At Roman Villa Site In Spain

The Chi Rho symbol was engraved on the Visigoth sarcophagus discovered in Spain.

"The Visigoths, the so-called barbaric tribe that would ultimately defeat the Romans and bring down the Roman Empire, were an early Germanic warring people. The course of their wars would ultimately lead them to settle in southern Gaul and then Hispania, from the 5th to the 8th century AD. And now, a Visigoth sarcophagus with human remains, over 1,500 years old, has been discovered among the ruins of a Roman villa in southern Spain [next video], reports the  Murcia Today  news outlet." Source: Ancient Origins.

"...The coffin, two meters (3.2 feet) in length has been dated to the 6th or 7th century AD and was unearthed next to a  Christian church built after the Romans abandoned the villa in the 5th century. The coffin was decorated with a swirling geometric pattern and renderings of ivy leaves, with a Chi Rho symbol on its top where the head of the corpse would have been."

Note: The Roman villa of Los Villaricos, where the sarcophagus was discovered, "is one of the most important villas of its kind in the Region of Murcia and is a substantial structure with evidence of several hundred years of occupation." (Murcia Today) "...Although it is an extensive site, there are still large areas of the villa remaining unexcavated to date."

Video from 2017. No English translation available, but good views of the site.<