Ancient World Review

St. Victoria's "Incorruptible" Body

"If you’re looking for macabre attractions, there is no place quite like Rome, thanks to the Catholic tradition of preserving and displaying relics of canonized saints for all the world to see. And there is no place in Rome quite as marvelous as the Santa Maria della Vittoria for that reason." Source: Atlas Obscura.

"While relics are often just parts of saints, this beautiful baroque church displays the full corpse of an 'incorruptible saint' in a glass case you can walk right up to to view — a rarity in Rome. This is the preserved corpse of the beautiful Saint Victoria."

Comment: I don't know where to start. First of all, this isn't a miraculously preserved corpse but a wax figure containing a (partial?) human skeleton decked out with a dress and someone else's hair. Second, there's no telling whose skeleton this is. Phony relics aren't exactly unheard of in the church, so the skeleton could be the remains of a common street prostitute or a pagan witch for all we know. Third, the Catholic fascination with displaying body parts and the "incorruptible" bodies of saints is grotesque and morbid. Fourth, the only reason that Victoria is a saint is because she stubbornly refused to marry a pagan and was eventually executed for being a Christian:

"Their legend recounts that, in the time of the Emperor Decius, Anatolia and Victoria were sisters whose marriage was arranged to two noble, non-Christian Roman men. They resisted matrimony and their prospective grooms denounced them as Christians. They received permission to imprison the women on their estates and convince them to renounce their faith. Anatolia's suitor, Titus Aurelius, gave up, and handed her back to the authorities. Victoria’s suitor, Eugenius, was more persistent, but also ended up returning her to the authorities." (Wikipedia)

This is a bizarre story, but it's possible that Victoria was executed for being a Christian since some persecutions did happen under the reign of the obscure Decius. According to Wikipedia, "During his reign, he attempted to strengthen the Roman state and its religion, leading to the Decian persecution, where a number of prominent Christians (including Pope Fabian) were put to death." (Wikipedia)

If Victoria and her sister existed and were actually executed, they were ultimately killed because they must have refused to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the emperor according to the edict of Decius. This was the standard Roman loyalty test. The polytheistic Romans didn't care what you believed in as such. They just wanted to make sure you weren't a threat to the state and traditional Roman values.

Rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral Will Be "Incredibly Hard"

Report from Nov. 27, 2020.

"Putting out the inferno that tore through the roof of Notre Dame in April 2019 was only the beginning of saving the iconic cathedral." Source: Live Science.

"From the precarious spaghetti of burnt scaffolding hanging over the building to the potential for the walls to collapse on themselves, architects and conservation experts had — and still have — a daunting task in front of them. A new special from NOVA, the science series on PBS, takes viewers through the challenges. It's a journey that travels from within the cathedral itself, to the catacombs below Paris, to the forests of Normandy that might provide the wood to reconstruct the building's massive roof."

Comment: We'll probably never know what caused the Notre Dame fire. As far as I can tell, the investigation went nowhere. The French government announced (while the fire was still burning) that there was no evidence of arson, but the timing of that announcement made it kind of suspect, to say the least. Earlier this year, the fire investigators said that the fire may have been caused by an electrical problem or a carelessly dropped cigarette, but that was just speculation. If they had any concrete evidence of negligence they would have sued the contractors that were doing the renovation, but the only lawsuits I've read about involved the lead contamination caused by the fire. The investigators seem to have decided early on that the fire was accidental. According to France 24 (April 18,2019), they questioned around 40 people - cathedral staff and restoration workers -- and UPI reported on June 27, 2019, that a judicial inquiry had interviewed more than 100 people -- but if these interviews produced any actual evidence I haven't been able to track it down.

Video from April 18, 2019. It doesn't sound very likely that an electrical problem with the elevator could have caused the fire and I'd be amazed to learn that a dropped cigarette could have started a blaze like this.

Maybe the fire was an accident. Maybe not. If it was an accident, then somebody was extremely negligent. The cathedral was in bad shape, its spire rotted in several places, and the fire danger was well understood. According to Wikipedia, "Extensive attention had been given to the risk of fire at the cathedral. The Paris Fire Brigade drilled regularly to prepare for emergencies there, including on-site exercises in 2018; a firefighter was posted to the cathedral each day; and fire wardens checked conditions beneath the roof [where the fire started] three times daily." The cathedral had fire alarms as well, but when the first one went off it took around twenty minutes for staff to actually locate the fire. Presumably it was already out of control by that time.

The thing that bothers me the most about this disaster is the way that the authorities seem to have decided early on that the fire was accidental. How could they say that when there was no evidence? Technically, it's true that there is no evidence of arson, but it's also true that there is no evidence that it was an accident. All of these statements about the cause of the fire are meaningless because there's no evidence one way or another. The fact that the authorities and the media went out of their way to "debunk" the speculation that this could have been arson just shows how nervous they are about the explosive situation they've created in France with their insane immigration policies.

Rock Art In California May Depict Hallucinogenic "Trance Flower"

"Just before going into a hallucinogenic trance, Indigenous Californians who had gathered in a cave likely looked up toward the rocky ceiling, where a pinwheel and big-eyed moth were painted in red." Source: Live Science.

"This mysterious 'pinwheel,' is likely a depiction of the delicate, white flower of Datura wrightii, a powerful hallucinogen that the Chumash people took not only for ceremonial purposes but also for medicinal and supernatural ones, according to a new study. The moth is likely a species of hawk moth, known for its  'loopy' intoxicated flight after slurping up Datura's nectar, the researchers said.

"Chewed globs that humans stuck to the cave's ceiling provided more evidence of these ancient trips; these up to 400-year-old lumps, known as quids, contained the mind-altering drugs scopolamine and atropine, which are found in Datura, the researchers said."

Described as an anticholinergic deliriant, sacred datura is extremely toxic. Deliriants are a class of hallucinogens which get their name from the fact that they induce a delirium rather than "the more lucid states produced by such other hallucinogens as are represented by psychedelics [LSD, for instance] and dissociatives [ketamine and others]."

According to Wikipedia, "The delirium produced, particularly by anticholinergics is characterized by stupor, agitation, confusion, confabulation, dysphoria, akathisia, realistic visual hallucinations or illusions (as opposed to the pseudohallucinations experienced on other classes of hallucinogens) and regression to 'phantom' behaviors such as disrobing and plucking. Other commonly reported behaviors include holding full conversations with imagined people, finishing a complex, multi-stage action (such as getting dressed) and then suddenly discovering one had not even begun yet, and being unable to recognize one's own reflection in a mirror."

Sounds like quite a trip if you're into this kind of thing.

Video from 2012.

The girl in the video above looks like a typical drug tourist, but she clearly recognizes the dangers involved in taking datura. For instance, she mentions at one point that the plant is sometimes used to murder people in Peru. That didn't stop her from trying it, though. Apparently, the trick to surviving the experience is to only deal with shamans who are presumably more trustworthy than your standard South American drug dealer.

Speaking of shamans, Carlos Castenada, well-known to old dopers, wrote a paper about datura (referred to as "devil's weed" by his supposed Yaqui shaman teacher, Don Juan) when he was an undergrad at UCLA in the Sixties:

"According to Castaneda's ex-wife Margaret Runyan (1921-2011), in her book A Magical Journey (1996) ... Castaneda's paper included references to datura's four heads, their different purposes, the significance of the roots, the cooking process and the ritual of preparation, all information that Castaneda supposedly learns later from Don Juan on visits between August 23 and Sept. 10, 1961, as described in THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968)." Source: The Wanderling.

Datura is so dangerous I'm amazed that anyone would use it for recreational purposes. I'm even more amazed that the Indians would use it as a rite of passage for their children:

"Datura wrightii is sacred to some Native Americans and has been used in ceremonies and rites of passage by Chumash, Tongva, and others. Among the Chumash, when a boy was 8 years old, his mother gave him a preparation of momoy [a tea made from datura] to drink. This was supposed to be a spiritual challenge to the boy to help him develop the spiritual well being required to become a man. Not all of the boys survived."

Related: The Erowid Datura Vault.

Five Terrifying Datura Trip Stories (video presentation of bad-trip accounts taken from Erowid)

Chumash Pictographs of Santa Barbara

Archaeologists Discover Mummy Of Largest (?) Scarab Beetle In The World (2018)

Video from 2019.

This collection of mummified scarabs, animals, statues, amulets, canopic jars, writing tools, papyri baskets and other artifacts was discovered back in 2018 in the King Userkaf pyramid complex at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. The scarab beetle was sacred to the ancient Egyptians and scarab amulets were traded throughout the Mediterranean world:

"Scarabaeus sacer is the most famous of the scarab beetles. To the Ancient Egyptians, S. sacer was a symbol of Khepri, the early morning manifestation of the sun god Ra, from an analogy between the beetle's behaviour of rolling a ball of dung across the ground and Khepri's task of rolling the sun across the sky. They accordingly held the species to be sacred." (Wikipedia)

"The Egyptians also observed young beetles emerging from the ball of dung, from which they mistakenly inferred that the male beetle was able to reproduce without needing a female, simply by injecting his sperm into the ball of dung. From this, they drew parallels with their god Atum, who also begat children alone."

Video from 2012. Closed-captions useful.

I have no idea if the scarab shown in the top video is actually the largest in the world. The thing looks gigantic in the video, but according to Wikipedia, these beetles only range from around 1.5 mm to 160 mm (app. six inches) in length.

"The scarab was of prime significance in the funerary cult of ancient Egypt. Scarabs, generally, though not always, were cut from green stone, and placed on the chest of the deceased. Perhaps the most famous example of such 'heart scarabs' is the yellow-green pectoral scarab found among the entombed provisions of Tutankhamen."

These amulets were sometimes ornately engraved. Next video describes the heart scarab of Amunhotep III.

X-Ray "Microbeams" Used To Scan Roman-Era Egyptian Child Mummy

Fayum mummy portraits.

"An Egyptian mummy that was decorated with a woman's portrait contained a surprise — the body of a child who was only 5 years old when she died. Now, scientists have learned more about the mysterious girl and her burial, thanks to high-resolution scans and X-ray 'microbeams' that targeted very small regions in the intact artifact." Source: Live Science.

Note: This is Hawara Portrait Mummy No. 4, one of the famous Fayum portrait mummies (I think). The fact that this is a child's mummy has apparently been known for some time. For instance, a paper which appeared in the 1985 Journal of Egyptian Archaeology states that "its small size indicates that this is the mummy of a child."

When the mummy was examined, "a small, elliptical object" was discovered in the wrappings over the abdomen:

"X-ray diffraction showed that it was made of calcite — but what was it? One possibility is that it could be an amulet included because the child's body was damaged during mummification ... After such a mishap, priests would often place an amulet such as a scarab over the damaged body part to protect the person in the afterlife, and the newfound calcite 'blob' was about the right size and in the right position for it to be a protective scarab..."

Prehistoric Human Sacrifice In Wisconsin (2015)

Video from 2015.

Note: "Aztalan is the site of an ancient Mississippian culture settlement that flourished during the 10th to 13th centuries. The indigenous people constructed massive earthwork mounds for religious and political purposes. They were part of a widespread culture with important settlements throughout the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries. Their trading network extended from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, and into the southeast of the present-day United States." Source: Wikipedia.

Related: Aztalan: Wisconsin’s famous archaeology site (a podcast featuring Robert Birmingham, former Wisconsin State Archaeologist).

The Evolution Of The King James Bible

"The King James Bible is the most widely read work in English literature, a masterpiece of translation whose stately cadences and transcendent phrases have long been seen, even by secular readers, as having emerged from a kind of collective divine inspiration." Source: New York Times (2015).

"But now, in an unassuming notebook held in an archive at the University of Cambridge, an American scholar has found what he says is an important new clue to the earthly processes behind that masterpiece: the earliest known draft, and the only one definitively written in the hand of one of the roughly four dozen translators who worked on it."

Comment: This isn't exactly ancient or even late medieval history, but I love old books and this discovery provides an interesting insight into how the modern Bible evolved over the centuries. In this case, a 16th - 17th century scholar had to make decisions about how to translate and interpret older texts, a process that must have been repeated who knows how many times since the Bible first came into existence.

This translation process inevitably introduced errors into the "inerrant word of God." According to the Huffington Post, "[t]he mistakes stem from five flawed translation techniques: etymology, internal structure, cognates, old mistranslations, and misunderstood metaphor." The really interesting question is whether an original, accurate version of the Bible ever actually existed.

That question still hasn't been answered. "For centuries, Bible scholars examined two ancient texts to elucidate the original language of the Bible [Old Testament]: the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint," according to Bible History Daily. One of these, the Septuagint, is itself a translation (into Greek) of the Old Testament. Other manuscripts are used as well. As for the New Testament, it consists of an anthology of old texts thought to date back to the 1st or 2nd centuries AD and perhaps later. These manuscripts are probably copies themselves.

Next video shows the oldest known surviving copy of the Christian Bible, the Greek Codex Sinaiticus, which dates back to the 4th century AD.

Considering all the claims that are made about the Bible's literal truth, its actual history is mind-boggling. There was no "original Bible" as such since it was assembled from dozens of existing manuscripts, and who knows where they came from or how many times they had been copied. Politicized church conferences decided which manuscripts to include and which to leave out. Translators made errors in translating the works of other translators, and copyists made errors and deliberate changes when they copied the texts of the translators.

Another thing: If you go looking for the original version of the Bible, you have to decide which Bible you're talking about. There are literally hundreds of different English versions and translations in use today, and there are a lot of differences between modern Bibles and various medieval versions. The search for the "authentic" Bible is futile, though. It will only lead you into a morass of ancient Biblical manuscripts and paleography. Good luck trying to figure out if the 10th commandment prohibits taking, not coveting, or if the pregnant woman in Isaiah 7:14 was actually a virgin.

Related: What kind of text is the King James Bible? (Bart Ehrman)

The Trinity Is Pagan

Comment: I don't believe in God myself, so the nature of the god I don't believe in has always been more or less irrelevant. Now that I think about it, though, this three-faced Christian deity seems to be completely pagan.

The Christian god has three aspects or personalities, just like the pagan gods had different manifestations. Take Zeus, for instance. Zeus Olympios was the king of the gods, Zeus Georgos the god of crops and harvests in Athens, Zeus Tallaios a solar deity worshiped in Crete, and so on.

Another example of a polymorphous deity would be the Hindu god Brahma, usually pictured as having four faces signifying different aspects of his underlying nature. (Image: Probably Nurpur, Punjab Hills, Northern India [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

As it turns out, the Christian god we're all so familiar with has deeper pagan roots than I would have thought.

The concept of the Trinity as such isn't found in the Bible, apparently, but there are references to "the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." The idea of a three-in-one god was basically invented by the church, which borrowed heavily from pagan philosophy when it came up with the doctrine. According to Wikipedia, "[t]he doctrine of the trinity . . . is not a product of the earliest Christian period, and we do not find it carefully expressed before the end of the second century."

The Trinity doctrine was influenced by Greek metaphysical philosophy and created a split in the early church:

"Such metaphysical thinking was common among the intelligentsia of the Greek world and carried over into the thinking of the Roman world of the New Testament period and succeeding centuries." Source: United Church of God. The so-called "true" church "resisted such infiltration" and "... [t]wo distinct threads of Christianity split and developed separately—one true to the plain and simple teachings of the Bible and the other increasingly compromised with pagan thought and practices adopted from the Greco-Roman world."

Apparently the doctrine of the Trinity wasn't formally accepted until the fourth century when Christianity became the official state religion of what was left of the Roman empire:

"Nontrinitarianism (or antitrinitarianism) refers to Christian belief systems that reject the doctrine of the Trinity as found in the Nicene Creed as not having a scriptural origin. Nontrinitarian views differ widely on the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Various nontrinitarian views, such as Adoptionism, Monarchianism, and Arianism existed prior to the formal definition of the Trinity doctrine in AD 325, 360, and 431, at the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus, respectively. Following the final victory of orthodoxy at Constantinople in 381, Arianism was driven from the Empire, retaining a foothold amongst the Teutonic tribes. When the Franks converted to Catholicism in 496, however, it gradually faded out. Nontrinitarianism was later renewed in the Gnosticism of the Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, and in some groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century." (Wikipedia)

It's ironic that some of the so-called heretical Christian movements, at least in this one aspect, were more scripturally "pure" than the official church.

Vaguely related: Duterte calls trinity doctrine "silly."

The Cult Of Cybele: Mother Of The Gods

"A 2,100-year-old marble statue of Cybele, an ancient Phrygian mother goddess, has been unearthed in excavations in northwestern Turkish province of Ordu [Greek Kotyora] located on the Black Sea coast." Source: Archaeology News Network (2016).

Notes: Cybele may have evolved from an even older fertility goddess in the proto-city of Catalhoyuk (7500-5700 BC), also located in ancient Anatolia. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Cybele was "the great mother-goddess of Anatolia, associated in myth, and later at least in cult, with her youthful lover Attis. Pessinus in Phrygia was her chief sanctuary, and the cult appears at an early date in Lydia."

According to Theoi Greek Mythology, "Kybele (Cybele) was the ancient Phrygian Mother of the Gods, a primal nature goddess worshiped with orgiastic rites in the mountains of central and western Anatolia. The Greeks identified her with their own mother of the gods--the Titaness Rhea."

The cult of Cybele was apparently introduced fairly early (3rd cent. BC) in Rome. "Thanks to its official status and early naturalization in Rome and in Ostia, the cult spread rapidly through the provinces, especially in Gaul and Africa, and was readily accepted as a municipal cult. Its agrarian character made it more popular with the fixed populations than with the soldiers, and it was especially favored by women." (OCD)

Cybele was also known as the Magna Mater or Great Mother. According to The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Ancient Texts, edited by Marvin W. Meyer (p.113), "she was honored as the mother goddess of fertility, but her particular power was evidenced in the wilds of the untamed forests and mountains." After Cybele entered the official Roman pantheon, "she was to function practically as a Roman national goddess" and enjoyed great favor with the emperors starting with Claudius in the first century.

"The most well-known Roman festival in honor of the Anatolian deities [Cybele and her consort Attis] was celebrated in the spring, during March," according to The Ancient Mysteries (p.114). These rites were associated with violent religious frenzy. "March 24 was aptly named The Day of Blood. On this day some of the fanatical celebrants flogged themselves until they bled and sprinkled their blood upon the image and altars in the sanctuary, while others are said to have imitated Attis by castrating themselves." (Ibid) Bulls were also sacrificed in honor of the Great Mother of the Gods.

A scene from the great HBO series Rome. Highly recommended.

Several Roman historians and poets described the cult of Cybele in detail. Livy, for instance, described how the cult was first brought to Rome in his History of Rome (Book 29.10-14):

"About this time a sudden wave of superstition swept over Rome. The Sibylline Books had been consulted because it had rained stones that year more than usual [!], and in the Books a prophecy was found that if ever a foreign enemy should invade Italy, he could be defeated and driven out if Cybele, The Idaean Mother of the Gods, were brought from Pessinus to Rome." (Ibid, p. 121).

Christian writers denounced the cult of Cybele and the church banned it altogether when they gained the secular power required to force their intolerant monotheism on the pagan world, but the tradition of the Great Mother still survives in the figure of the Virgin Mary.

The Book Of Revelation (Updated)

The Book of Revelation is thought to have been written during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96 AD). Many Christians believe the author was the apostle John, but the consensus among scholars is that the book was written by an unknown author they call John of Patmos, who either lived on the Greek island of Patmos or was exiled there during one of Domitian's alleged persecutions of the early Christians.

Note: According to Christian sources, Domitian carried out several harsh persecutions, especially towards the end of his reign, but "some historians ... have maintained that there was little or no anti-Christian activity during Domitian's time." (Wikipedia) "The lack of consensus by historians about the extent of persecution during the reign of Domitian derives from the fact that while accounts of persecution exist, these accounts are very cursory or their reliability is debated." (That's a polite way of saying that a lot of the Christian stories about how they were persecuted in the ancient world are myths.)

It's commonly believed that the Book of Revelation describes Armageddon, the end of the world, but it seems more likely that its author was prophesying the fall of the hated Roman empire:

"Many people look to the Book of Revelations for signs of the apocalypse," according to a now-defunct source I found a while ago. "This event represents the cumulative battle between good and evil, ends the world, ushers in the Age of God. The Book of Revelations was written during a trying time in Christian and Jewish history. The book’s target was not necessarily Satan, but Rome. As a result, the final battle and victory of God over Satan was actually predicting the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity."

A classic example of the apocalyptic literature of the period, the Book of Revelation was probably written in response to the spread of the Roman imperial cult under the Flavian emperors:

According to biblical scholar L. Michael White, "most scholars now think that the issue revolved around the inauguration of the Flavian imperial cult in Ephesus ... Our clearest indication of how this is reflected in Revelation is seen in the description of the two 'beasts' from Rev. 13. The first is called 'the beast from the sea' who is given his power by Satan himself. He is described as having 'seven heads and ten horns,' and people worshiped him (Rev. 13.1-4). Then there is a second, 'the beast from the land' who makes everyone worship the first beast and its 'image' (Rev. 13.11-18). The 'image' (13.14-15) and the mysterious number '666' (13.18) refer to statues and coins or inscriptions with the emperor's image and titles. The 'beast from the land' probably referred to either the provincial governor of Asia or to the high priest of the imperial cult, who jointly would have overseen the temple and its festivals in Ephesus at just this time."

In other words, the apocalypse predicted by the Book of Revelation actually refers to the hoped-for collapse of Rome. If this view is correct, then all the millennial cults and end-times Christians who are waiting for Armageddon based on their reading of Revelation are actually waiting for an event which happened almost 1500 years ago. But the strange truth of all of this is that the Roman empire was already Christian when it collapsed in the west. Gibbon was at least partially right when he blamed the fall of Rome (partly) on "barbarians and Christianity."

The Cave of the Apocalypse, Patmos Island.

It's strange and revealing that the New Testament, a collection of books about peace, love and redemption, should end with the apocalyptic bloodbath of Revelation. One minute, you have Jesus blessing the little children and talking about forgiving your enemies, then, the next minute, a beast with seven heads is slaughtering millions of sinners in a river of blood. That's quite a story arc, to say the least.

Revelation has always been my favorite book in the Bible because of its hallucinatory weirdness. This is one thing I share with Hunter Thompson:

"I have stolen more quotes and thoughts and purely elegant little starbursts of writing from the Book of Revelation than anything else in the English language-and it is not because I am a biblical scholar, or because of any religious faith, but because I love the wild power of the language and purity of the madness that governs it and makes it music." -- Generation of Swine, Introduction, Hunter S. Thompson.

Considering the Book of Revelation's surrealistic content, I've always wondered if John -- assuming that was his real name -- happened to stumble across some funny plants or mushrooms during his exile on Patmos, which, incidentally, was listed by Forbes (in 2014) as "modern Europe's most idyllic place to live." This has probably changed dramatically with the "refugee" invasion of the Greek islands, which has been an absolute disaster. The island probably wasn't that idyllic back in John's day, either, but the views must have been spectacular.

Note: The Monastery of St. John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos are now World Heritage Sites.