Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

Dr William Sullivan calculated that the Inca myth related to events around 850AD, 650 years before the Inca Empire was founded.

 

There are over 600 Flood Myths recounted world wide, from Siberia to Papua New Guinea. From Alaska to Hawaii.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In his towering four volume magnum opus on comparative mythology, The Masks of God, Joseph Campbell argued that such universal myths originated in the Middle East at the time of Ancient Sumer and Egypt, then were diffused around the world, arriving last in pre-Colombian South America (which at the time of writing was thought to have emerged of the great world civilizations most recently).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He found striking similarities between the great world religions to support his case, which is compellingly told and monumentally researched.

 

At the time he wrote, the orthodox view was that Sumer and Egypt predated the civilizations of Hsia (China) and Mohenjo Daro (India) and elsewhere, thus supporting the case he made for mythological diffusion.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But the opinions of Archaeology on the development of civilization have progressed since Campbell's time and that view has radically changed.

 

Based on recent research, it would now seem that city-based civilisations emerged more or less simultaneously in at least 6 key locations around the world.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But if these civilizations were entirely independent of each other as now believed, how then can it be that the myths they told are so strikingly similar the entire world over?

 

At what point were these stories told, and how did they originally spread?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cat-Man_America]

One theory has these stories originating with The Three Stooges, but who knows? >

 

 

 

 

[BOOT]

When The Earth Nearly Died by D.S. Allan and J.B. Delair is a fascinating look at geological evidence for a series of great catastrophes, including a deluge, that they say occurred around 9,500 B.C.

 

It has been retitled and reissued as Cataclysm! Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C.

 

A great read with some really scary stories!

[BOOT]

At sunrise on the June solstice the rising sun precisely illuminates the "window" at the "base". (Remember, these are in reality flat terraces!)

 

Mind-boggling stuff. Love archaeoastronomy - hadn't seen this before. Thanks!

 

 

[BangZoom]

But the opinions of Archaeology on the development of civilization have progressed since Campbell's time and that view has radically changed.

 

Based on recent research, it would now seem that city-based civilisations emerged more or less simultaneously in at least 6 key locations around the world.

 

 

 

Great stuff as usual, Michael.

 

This past Saturday my wife and I were walking down a backstreet in a town we were visiting and we stumbled across a yard sale that the homeowner was holding.

 

 

 

 

Among the assorted lots for sale were several boxes of books that dated back to the early 1800's.

 

I purchased a bunch of them including a 2 volume set published in 1841: "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan" by John L. Stephens.

 

 

 

 

I was wondering if you have ever read any of his books?

 

I've already started reading volume 1 and it's quite enjoyable.

 

A snippet from Wikipedia:

 

In 1839, President Martin Van Buren commissioned Stephens as Special Ambassador to Central America. While there, the government of the Federal Republic of Central America fell apart in civil war. His Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán gives a vivid description of some of those events which Stephens witnessed. Stephens and his traveling companion, architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood first came across Maya ruins at Copán, having landed in British Honduras (present-day Belize). They were astonished at their findings and spent a couple weeks mapping the site. They surmised that this must have been built by some long forgotten people as they couldn't imagine the native Mayans as having lived in the city. Stephens was actually able to buy the city of Copan for a sum of $50 and had dreams of floating it down the river and into museums in The United States. They went on to Palenque, Uxmal, and according to Stephens, visited a total of 44 sites. Stephens and Catherwood reached Palenque in April 1840 and left in early June. They documented the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Foliated Cross. Of even greater importance, their book provided descriptions of several ancient Maya sites, along with illustrations by Catherwood. These were greatly superior in both amount and accuracy of depiction to the small amount of information on ancient Mesoamerica previously published.

 

Stephens continued his investigations of Maya ruins with a return trip to Yucatán which produced a further book.

 

His books served to inspire Edgar Allan Poe, who also reviewed three of his travel books for the New York Review and Graham's Magazine.

 

[BOOT]

Bound up in her own theories, Maria Reich had never though to ask them.

 

Outstanding piece on Reiche and her work! Thank you for presenting this. The lady was a true hero who helped save an ancient marvel for modern generations.

 

However, I wonder if perhaps the assessment in your last line may be a bit harsh. Surely she communicated with the residents over the years. Did the Nazcans not perform their procession during the more than 50 years she was there? If so, how did she fail to observe it? Why did they only perform it at the urging of a visitor with his own hypothesis?

 

Flex, thanks for sharing your wide ranging knowledge here. Do you ever wonder whether this site is the best channel for your communications? These are some important ideas and should be enjoyed by a wide audience!

[Flex Mentallo]

Hamlet's Mill

 

"West of Libya (Africa), there is a large island on the ocean. Dense forests cover its shores and there are a lot of springs. The plains are vast and crossed by many navigable rivers".

Diodorus Siculus 1st Century BC

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

William Sullivan believes that the only possible answer to the universality of myth is that ocean-going craft plied the seas long before currently imagined.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Through global commerce they connected civilizations together, he theorizes, sharing ideas, inventions, stories and artifacts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He bases this belief on a paper called Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time, written by two historians of science, Giorgio de Santillana of MIT and Hertha von Dechend of Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, in which the authors posit the previous and largely forgotten existence of an advanced world culture based upon a universal myth which has embedded within it knowledge of precession and a code for navigation by the stars.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The stone which the builders refused

is become the head stone of the corner.

Psalm CXVIII.22; Luke XX.I7

 

The title, "Hamlet's Mill", comes from a prototype of the Shakespearean Prince Hamlet, the Scandinavian Amlodhi of Snorri Sturluson. The mill-stone is a recurring motif in Creation myths around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In the Kalevala, it was depicted as a rotating millstone, the Sampo, that once ground out infinite abundance during a Golden Age that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that it's creator Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.

 

The forging of the sampo

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The Sampo has been interpreted in many ways: a world pillar or world tree, a compass or astrolabe, a chest containing a treasure, a Byzantine coin die, a decorated Vendel period shield, a Christian relic, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

What these symbols highlight is a central rotational aspect connected with creation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In the World Axis, therefore, we find not only the concept of spacetime, but also the axis upon which spacetime can rotate.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

It’s the hinge upon which reality pivots.