When the Conquistadors were ravaging and looting the ancient cultures of the Aztecs and Incas, native tribesmen told them about an amazing rumor. They said that there was a race, deep in the jungle, whose king was covered with gold dust and who swam in a golden lake. It was the story of ‘El Dorado’, the ‘Golden Man’. One of the first Spaniards to set off to find this fantasy land was Jimenez de Quesada. In 1536, Quesada and 500 soldiers hacked into the undergrowth from the northwest of what is now Columbia. After many hard days trudging through intense and dangerous jungle, they came upon two tribes of Chibchas, a race with plentiful riches. They had gold, silver and huge amounts of emeralds, but they did not have the fabled ‘El Dorado’. However, they told Quesada of a lake in the middle of a huge volcanic crater on the Bogota plateau not far away.
The natives revealed that the lake was called Guatavita and each year the bizarre ceremony of the Golden Man would take place. Tribal witnesses said the occasion was used to offer sacrifices and gifts to the god that they worshipped. The tribal king was smeared in sticky mud, on which gold dust was set. He and four other chiefs then sailed on a raft with their finest jewels and treasures, whilst the tribe played music at the shoreline. When the king and his party reached the centre of the lake they threw the offerings into the water, and the king then bathed himself to remove his golden covering. Quesada travelled to the lake, but could find no clue hinting at treasure. Other Spaniards heard the rumours about Guatavita, and the first attempt to dredge the lake began in 1545.
As the years passed, each new expedition heard other versions of the El Dorado legend. Each one ploughed into the jungle certain they would find the wealth. None ever did, but they did come across other interesting
things. In 1537, one adventurer, Francisco de Orellana, was trying to find the golden city by sailing down the Napo River. Orellana reached the end of the Napo, and realised it was a tributary to another, massive river. As he floated along this, a tribe of long-haired, fierce female archers attacked his boat. The women reminded Orellano of the Amazons of Scythia in Greek legend, and he named the river ‘Amazonas’.
In 1584 another native rumor appeared. It suggested that Incas fleeing from the Spanish invaders had created a new city of gold called Manoa. This became inseparable from the El Dorado legend, and in 1595 the British adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to find Manoa and its gold for Queen Elizabeth I. He failed, and a further fruitless expedition in 1617 helped to seal his execution. Over the years, yet another myth circulated – that of a lost mystical lake called Parima. It was described as being almost identical to Quesada’s initial discovery, Lake Guatavita. Despite this, more expeditions floundered in the jungle, haphazardly slicing their way through the foliage until they ran out of supplies, funds, men or patience. Meanwhile, other Spaniards had decided to continue attempts at reaching the bottom of Lake Guatavita. In 1580s, Antonio de Sepulveda, a merchant living in Bogota, used 8000 native men to drain the lake by cutting a huge gash in the side. He did manage to remove a fair deal of water, and found considerable gold, but the earth walls
collapsed, killing many workmen and causing the project to be abandoned. Further attempts to drain the lake continued right into the twentieth century, and many historically valuable artifacts were found, but
never the great quantities of treasure promised by the legends. There can be little doubt that, despite the
countless and varied attempts hunting through the jungle, the Conquistadors never uncovered all the secrets of the Amazon. Biology, botany and anthropology show us that there is still plenty of potential for new
discoveries. Did the Spanish adventurers really find the lake of El Dorado? Almost certainly Lake Guatavita is that fabled lagoon. But nobody has found yet Manoa, and if the El Dorado myth has been proven
real, there is good reason to suspect the Manoan legend will be too.
learn more about the ancient world. The Egyptians were known to have knowledge and records dating back centuries, and as Solon tried to impress his hosts with tales of Greece’s achievements, the wise old
Egyptian priests put him in his place. They revealed a story about a continent and a people completely unknown to him.
Around 10,000 BC, a powerful race lived on an island in the west, beyond the ‘Pillars of Hercules’, now believed to be the land masses along the coasts of the Straits of Gibraltar. The island was the kingdom of
Poseidon, the Sea God. It had a huge central mountain with a temple dedicated to the deity, and lush outlying districts, there was an elaborate system of canals to irrigate its successful farms, and a bustling central city.
The island was rich in vegetables, and was home to different types of exotic animals. The Atlantans were originally a powerful but fair race. They were an advanced people with a prosperous trading industry, a strong
and noble army and a highly educated, cultured society. Their influence reached far and wide, and they controlled large areas of Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean. Although the island left its inhabitants
wanting for nothing, their taste for power and empire led to them over-extending themselves. An attempt to conquer Athens failed, and the Atlantans retreated home to face a cataclysmic disaster. Legend says that
the great god Zeus saw the corruption that had seized the island’s people, and sent down upon them an immense barrage of earthquakes, fire and water. Atlantis disappeared under the waves.
Whilst Plato’s story was well known, the renewed modern interest in Atlantis began in 1882 with the publication of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by a former US congressman, Ignatius Donnelly. Donnelly’s
book was a mixture of conjecture, misinterpreted fact and actual history. But there were some interesting ideas; he noted similarities in the science and culture of native races which apparently could never have met.
Likewise, the great ancient flood, which is said to have destroyed Atlantis, is logged in ancient writings and traditions of peoples around the world. Exactly who the Atlantans were is unknown. Some say they were aliens, some believe they were descendants of the Lemurians (see p. 81), and some say they eventually traveled westward and became Native American tribes. Similarly, the actual placing of Atlantis is a subject open to argument. Many experts suggest the island was actually in the Mediterranean, and a constant stream of archaeological investigations in the area has tried to prove this. There are theories that Sardinia in the
Mediterranean, and the island of Thera in the Aegean Sea, could be Atlantis. Both had highly-evolved civilizations: the Nuraghi people on Sardinia and the Minoan culture on Thera. Both also suffered terrible natural disasters. But neither of these islands are westwards of the Straits of Gibraltar, so to accept them is to doubt Plato’s geography Also, the advanced races on these islands disappeared about 900 years before Plato – he stated that Atlantis became extinct 9,000 years before him.
Other experts say Atlantis was in the middle of the Atlantic, and all that is left of the island are its mountains, the peaks of which show through above the waves. These are now believed by many to be the Azore islands. There is also evidence to suggest a huge comet or asteroid crashed into the southwest Atlantic Ocean many thousands of years ago and two 23,000-feet-deep holes have been identified on the seabed close to Puerto Rico. Experts believe the falling rock that caused them would have created massive natural movements, enough to destroy any mid-Atlantic islands.
Atlantis was to get stranger still through the trance-readings of Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), the celebrated ‘sleeping seer’. As a young man Cayce had discovered that, when put into a hypnotic trance, he apparently had the ability to diagnose ailments and prescribe cures. Later he developed the ability to read people’s past lives and to channel historical and spiritual wisdom, in particular from ancient Atlantis. According to Cayce, Atlantis had enjoyed a 40,000-year history, during which Atlantans developed from pure energy thought-forms into humans with the sort of high Neolithic culture described by Plato, but with the added twist of advanced technologies such as energy-crystals, lasers, airships and death-rays. Like Donnelly, Cayce said that historical civilizations such as Egypt and the Mayans were founded by Atlantan refugees or colonists. Cayce also borrowed heavily (though probably unconsciously) from Donnelly in describing the location of Atlantis. Originally it had filled most of the Atlantic between Spain/Africa in the East and the Caribbean in the West, although apparently large tracts of eastern North America had once been part of Atlantis. In particular, Cayce pointed to the Bimini Islands in the Caribbean as being remnants of Atlantis, and claimed that a giant subterranean Hall of Records, a repository of earth-shattering Atlantan wisdom, would be discovered in this area. There was much excitement among Cayce followers when divers discovered a strange rock formation on the seabed near Bimini, now known as the ‘Bimini Road’ because of its resemblance to a Roman road. Many claimed that the Bimini Road was proof of the prior existence of an advanced civilization, which had evidently been submerged beneath the waves just as in the tale of Atlantis. However, most geologists and archaeologists agree that it is simply a curious-looking but natural beach-rock formation.
Plato depicts Atlantis in some facet. It was roughly oblong, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) across, with mountains around the coast and a great central plain, the most prominent feature of which was a mount to the south, upon which a great acropolis was built and around which grew the capital city of Atlantis. The central acropolis was protected by concentric rings of canals, with mighty walls shielding each ring of prevailing land. A huge canal linked the circular moats with the ocean to the south, and all the commerce of the world passed up and down the great waterway. At its height, Atlantis was a glorious Bronze Age civilization, with a mighty army and fleet, rich in natural resources and prosperous from the trade of nations.
Plato also describes how Atlantis was created: Poseidon, god of the sea, took it for his own when the gods of Olympus were carving up the world, and he shaped it according to his needs. His children (the eldest of whom was Atlas) became the kings of the land and ruled according to his precepts. In a familiar tale of decline, however, they became morally corrupt and debased as their wealth and power increased, and so the gods visited disaster upon them, smiting the land with a great earthquake that caused it to sink beneath the waves, becoming an impassable mud shoal that hindered free transport between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. These questionably unsteady foundations have given rise to many libraries’ worth of assumption from ancient times until the modern day.
The classic lost land, Atlantis has been positioned all over the place - from Ireland to Antarctica. Its vagueness has grown throughout the years, possibly out of all proportion to the actual proof for its reality, as it has developed into a criterion of the New Age progress, a key element of the unconventional history mythology.
So what is Atlantis? Is it the celebrated relic of an indisputably significant prehistoric culture? Is it a harmless narrative for “castle in the sky” novelists? Is it an idealistic self-satisfaction for romantics? Or fodder for hazardous prejudice? And if it actually did exist, where was it situated? We will return to discuss about it.
There are legends about a religion in which women were not allowed. It was a religion that was practiced by the Roman legions. There have been attempts to rubbish the existence of this religion, however, it was indeed a proper religion.
Mithraism, the most popular religion among the soldiers in the Roman legions, became Christianity’s greatest rival in the early centuries of the church, it was not, as is often incorrectly cited, a Christian heresy. While it is true that the worshippers of the Persian god Mithras spoke of the adoration of their deity by a group of shepherds at his miraculous birth, observed a baptismal ritual that must be observed by those who wished to follow him, participated in a communal meal of bread and water which resembled the Eucharist, and celebrated his birthday on December 25, Mithraism had been established throughout the Persian Empire at least 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ in 6 B.C.E. Mithraism had been spread throughout the then-known world by a group of magi, who preached an apocalyptic scenario in which Mithras, greatly associated with solar symbolism, would return at the end of a 7,000-year cycle to renew the world and to reestablish his earthly reign.
In Rome, Mithras had appeal to both the foot soldier and his ranking officers. Mithraism was a macho religion for men only—no women allowed. After baptismal rites had been conducted, the rugged legionnaires passed through graded ranks, such as Crow, Soldier, Lion, Courtier of the Sun, and, ultimately, Father. Boys as young as seven could begin their initiation as Crow, and neither military rank nor class distinctions differentiated those who followed Mithras. Those who declared themselves to be practicing Mithraists were valued as disciplined and temperate soldiers who had formed an unbreakable bond with their fellow worshippers. And those men who faced death in battle were assured that the rites of Mithras would guide them securely into a peaceful afterlife.
The powerful effects of Emperor Constantine’s (d. 337) conversion to Christianity in the fourth century had a great influence on vast numbers of the Roman legions, and thousands of soldiers followed his example and converted to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E.) and the Christian Church. Mithraism gradually faded into obscurity by the end of the fourth century, retaining only small pockets of followers scattered throughout what had once been the Persian Empire.
In Italy alone there are 190 blood samples of various saints that are venerated by the faithful as important religious relics. In a number of cases, these vials of clotted blood become liquefied in a paranormal manner, especially during religious ceremonies, thus exalting the sample from relic to a supernatural miracle.
Perhaps the most celebrated of such relics is the vial of blood said to be that of St. Januarius (c.272–305), an early bishop of Benevento, who was beheaded during the persecutions of the Christians by Emperor Diocletian (245–316) in 305. Once or twice a year since 1389, St. Januarius’ dried blood has liquefied in full view of the pilgrims who arrive to pay tribute to his memory in Naples.
The blood of St. Lorenzo (d. 258) rests in a small flask in the right wing of the church of St. Maria in Amaseno. Lorenzo was martyred on August 10, 258 under the order of the Emperor Valerian (d. 260), and although he was condemned to be burned to death on a grill, some of his blood was caught and preserved by his fellow Christians. Each year on the anniversary of his martyrdom, the vial is brought near the altar and locked in a glass cabinet. There, in full view of the assembled worshippers at St. Maria, the transformation of the centuries-old clotted blood to liquid occurs.
Psychical researcher Luigi Garlaschelli has proposed that a process called “thixotropy” might explain how the blood of St. Januarius might liquefy each year. Thixotropy “denotes the property of certain gels to liquefy when stirred or vibrated, and to solidify again when left to stand.” It is Garlaschelli’s theory that the very act of handling the relic during the religious ceremony, the motions of a priest repeatedly checking the progress of the blood in the vial, might well provide the necessary movement to prompt the liquefaction of the saint’s blood.
But the investigator is cautious about applying his theory to explain the liquefied blood of St. Lorenzo, which is only moved once on August 10 from its place of safekeeping to the altar, or the large vial containing the blood of St. Panatleone, which becomes liquefied on July 27 and is never moved from its resting place behind a grating.
Garlaschelli speculates that the overall look of the substances in the vials, together with their observed properties of softening and liquefying when near the warming effect of altar candles and human touch, then returning to solid once removed from the warmth, suggest that the relics may consist of fats or waxes and an oil-soluble red dye. While the rational mind insists that the substance in the vials of the saints cannot possibly be blood, until church authorities permit scientists to withdraw actual specimens from the receptacles, the question remains a puzzle to scientists and a miracle of faith to believers.
In the teachings and traditions of all world religions, demons are spiritual entities without physical bodies that roam the Earth seeking to torment whomever attracts them through a wide variety of means—from weakness to wizardry. According to these ancient traditions, demons have supernatural powers; they are numerous; and they are organized. They can inflict sickness and mental disorders on their victims. They can possess and control humans and animals. Demons lie and deceive and teach false and misleading doctrines of spirituality. They oppose all teachings and actions that seek to serve the good and God.
According to the great teachers of the world religions, the main tasks of demons are to disseminate error among humans and to seduce believers into forsaking good for evil. Since they are such skilled deceivers, it is nearly impossible to develop an adequate litmus test that will unfailingly distinguish between good spirits and bad ones. Unless one is truly pure in heart, mind, and soul and has the ability to maintain only clean thoughts and good habits, it is very difficult to discern with unfailing accuracy the true nature of demon spirits.
Theologians remind their followers that as mortal beings they are in the midst of a great spiritual warfare between the angels of light.
who serve God and the fallen angels who serve the forces of darkness—and that their souls may be the prize for the victors. Accomplished spiritual teachers of all faiths advise their congregants that the good spirits will never try to interfere with the free will of humans or seek to possess their bodies. On the other hand, the evil spirits desire the physical host body of a human being. In fact, they must have such a vehicle if they are to experience earthly pleasures. When a demon invades a human body, it is said that possession has occurred and an exorcism by a priest or shaman may be required to free the victim from the evil spirit’s grasp.
Demonic entities are credited with will and intellect, but these attributes are invariably directed toward evil as they exert their malevolent powers. When these evil spirits penetrate the material world and the circumstances of human life, they conceal themselves in every aspect of human existence.
In many instances, the gods of the old religions become the demons of the new. The Asuras, a race of gods in the early Vedas (sacred Hindu texts composed around 1500 to 1200 B.C.E.), are transmuted to powerful evil beings with the advent of the new deities of Indra and Vishnu. The raksasas are a class of entities who attack humans with the intended goal of driving them insane or causing them material ruin. As in many theologies, there is an ambivalence concerning certain deities. In Hinduism, the most terrifying of the gods, such as Kali, Durga, and Shiva, although seemingly demonic and destructive, often perform deeds that ultimately turn out to be good.
In the scriptures of the world religions, the chief of the legions and hordes of demons is known by various names: Satan, Lucifer, Iblis, Mara, and Angra Mainyu, among others. The word “devil” is derived from the Greek diabolos, which means “accuser” or “slanderer,” and is one of the names for Satan. Daimon, the Greek word from which “demon” is derived, originally meant a tutelary spirit or a spirit guide, but it is frequently, and incorrectly, translated as “devil” or “demon.” In the traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the animosity between demons (the fallen angels) and the human race can be traced to the moment when God granted his
earthly creations of dust and clay with the priceless gift of free will. In the biblical and qur’anic traditions are found references to the jealousy that afflicted certain angels regarding the attention that God displayed toward his human creation. In the Qur’an (17:61–64), Iblis (Satan), the leader of the rebellious angels, refuses to bow to a creature that God has created of clay, and he threatens to make existence miserable for the descendants of the being that the Creator has honored above them. Because of the declared animosity of the fallen angels against those heavenly beings who remain faithful to the Creator and against those mortals who seek to follow the higher teachings of revealed truth, the epistle writer Paul (d. 62–68 C.E.) gave counsel when he warned that humans not only engage in spiritual warfare with those of flesh and blood who serve evil, “but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Although Buddhism generally rejects a cosmological dualism between good and bad, angels and demons, there is an aspect within the traditional lives of the Buddha which echoes the jealousy motif of various entities toward humans. Mara, who tempted the Awakened One on the night of his enlightenment, is said to be an asura or a Deva (a being of light) who was jealous of the power that was about to be bestowed on a human, for to become a Buddha would be to achieve spiritual status greater than they possessed. Tibetan Buddhism borrows its demons from Hinduism and adds a number of indigenous entities, who are ambivalent toward the inhabitants of the Himalayas, sometimes appearing as fierce and malevolent creatures, other times manifesting as teachers of enlightenment.
Various scriptures state firmly that regardless of their strength, power, and majesty, angels are not to be worshipped, and religious teachers advise that true heavenly beings will immediately discourage any humans from attempting to bow their knees to them. On the other hand, the fallen angels, the demons, are motivated by their own selfish goals and delight in corrupting humans. They encourage mortals to express greed and to seek the acquisition of material, rather than spiritual, treasures. As a general spiritual law, these negative entities cannot achieve power over humans unless they are somehow invited into a person’s private space—or unless they are attracted to an individual by that person’s negativity or vulnerability.
The Antichrist, as the word implies, is one who opposes Christ or who falsely presents himself or herself as Christ. Although the word is most commonly associated with the apocalyptic New Testament book of Revelation, the word “Antichrist” is nowhere to be found within its text. In 1 John 2:18, the epistle writer declares that the “enemy of Christ” has manifested and that many false teachers have infiltrated the Christian ranks. In verse 22, John names as the Antichrist anyone who would deny Jesus as the Christ and the Father and the Son, and in 2 John verse 7 he declares that there are many deceivers already at work among the faithful.
Throughout the Bible the Antichrist bears many titles: Son of Perdition, Man of Sin, Man of Lawlessness, the Prince of Destruction/Abomination, and the Beast. The prophet Daniel describes the man in great detail: He shall be an evil king who will “…exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak outrageous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation is accomplished: for that which has been determined shall come to pass. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate he shall (secretly) honor a god of forces and a god whom his fathers never knew. To these he will worship with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in his fortress with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain” (Daniel 11:36).
Although Jesus makes it clear that no one knows the hour or day of his Second Coming, for many centuries now certain Christian clergy and scholars have steadfastly associated the rise of the Antichrist to earthly power as a kind of catalyst that would set in motion Armageddon, the last final battle between good and evil, the ultimate clash between the armies of Jesus Christ and Satan.
We even have a website that proclaims that Bush is Antichrist
Believe if you want to...
I am reminded of the movie White Noise and a question suddenly springs in minds - Can the living communicate with the dead?
We have heard about all kinds of living-dead communication. The ghost who talked to Hamlet being the most popular. Ouija Boards are as popular as ever. What is this phenomenon about living-dead communication? I doubt if Sherlok Holmes could answer this question. There is no way he could have answered ... "Elementary, my dear ...".
Whether spirits are attempting to communicate with us or not, we are trying to communicate with them—Husbands with deceased wives; Wives with deceased husbands; Parents with deceased Children and Children with deceased Parents. Their motive are different. Sometimes it is closure, sometimes it is just the need to know that they are alright, now that we can not take care of them.
This is a true Story....
The Reverend Arthur Bellamy told the co-founder of British Society for Psychical Research Frederic W. H. Myers about the “lady” he saw one night sitting by the side of the bed where his wife lay sound asleep.Bellamy stared at the strange woman for several minutes, noting especially the elegant styling of her hair, before the lady vanished.When Mrs. Bellamy awakened, the reverend described her mysterious caller. He was startled to learn that the description fit that of a schoolgirl friend of his wife’s with whom she had once made a pact that the first one to die should appear after her death to the survivor.The astonished clergyman then asked his wife if there was anything outstanding about her friend, so they might be certain it had been she. “Her hair,” she answered without hesitation.“We girls used to tease her at school for devoting so much time to the arrangement ofher hair.” Later, Bellamy identified a photograph of his wife’s friend as being the likenessof the specter that had appeared at her bedside.
These stories might be hoax of their days, which we believe to be true, however, there are millions of instances of such paranormal occurrences. If we can see the dead at times, why can we not hear or communicate with them? They surely do carry the power of communication, the knowledge of words from their lives after their death, don't they? Do They?
Till date there is to be one big story about communication with the dead. I am sure that some corroborated story might have made it to the headlines, it has not! I am no skeptic, but then I am no gullible fool either. I am not deciding one way or the other till I get some evidence.
“To fear death, gentlemen, is nothing otherthan to think oneself wise when one is not; for it isto think one knows what one does not know. Noman knows whether death may not even turn outto be the greater of blessings for a human being,and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain thatit is the greatest of evils.”—SOCRATES
A consensus among those who investigate the near-death experience yields a number of features commonly described by those who have undergone NDE:
• They usually see their physical bodies apart from their spiritual bodies. They experience a soaring sensation, a definite movement out of the body and discover that their consciousness is free of time and space and all prior physical limitations.
• There is often a sense of disorientation and confusion when family, friends, medical personnel, and other people seem unaware of their nonphysical presence.
• The sensation of moving down a tunnel toward a bright light is frequently mentioned.
• A great number of those who have undergone NDE state that they encountered an angelic being, a spirit guardian, or the spirit of someone known by them to have been deceased, such as a friend or a relative.
• Many report having witnessed a kind of life review of their Earth-plane existence.
• A glimpse of paradise or even a guided tour of heaven conducted by an angelic host is recalled by many.
• An extreme reluctance to leave this beautiful state of existence and return to their physical bodies is commonly expressed.
• Upon their return to their bodies, many near-death experiencers discover that their awareness has been expanded far beyond what it was before the NDE. Some report heightened extrasensory abilities, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
Now, this is a true story...
A 45-year-old woman named Kathy who said that she had been afflicted with incurable thyroid cancer and had been given six months to live. It was at that awful moment that she also developed pneumonia. After she was rushed to a hospital, her heart stopped; and as doctors worked desperately to revive her, Kathy stated that the real her was “high on top of a beautiful ridge overlooking a beautiful valley. The colors were extremely vivid, and I was filled with joy.” A being of light touched her spirit body, and her entire essence was “filled with light.” Later, when she was revived, Kathy’s pneumonia had disappeared. A few weeks later, her cancer, too, had left her. None of the medical practitioners could explain what happened to her. But she did bring back something from her near death experience that caused the healing.
While skeptics ridicule the “will to believe” in an afterlife as religious wishful thinking, it might be suggested that many of them embrace a “will to disbelieve” with what also amounts to a kind of religious fervor. For many scientists, there can be no consciousness after the physical body dies. The universe is comprised exclusively of material realities, and without the physical organism there can be no mind, no consciousness—and certainly no life after death. Many believe near-death experiences are but hallucinations caused by reasons that may be psychological, pharmacological, or neurological.
We are here just to put the thought in motion. Leave your comments on Afterlife and we will pick up where we are leaving now...
"EACH soul was created by God to be immortaland individual, irrevocably connected to the afterlife."
The earliest discovered burial sites are those of Neanderthal man, though according to researcher George Constable, they “were not credited with deliberate meaningful burial of their dead until more than a half-century after their discovery.” The well-known anthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leaky said of the discoveries that their grave sites were intentional and thus indicates the Neanderthals displayed a keen selfawareness and a concern for the human spirit. Many burial sites have been discovered in Europe and the Near East. The placement of the remains reveals ritualistic elements, as the cadavers were found in a sleeping or fetal position. Some remains have also been found with plants or flowers, placed in the hands or the body, and sometimes with red pigment, possibly used in a symbolic rite. Some Neanderthals were found buried together in a group, meaning that entire family
groups remained united after death.
One of the most interesting burial sites contained remains that had been carefully placed in the fetal position on a bedding of woody horsetail, a regional plant. This particular Neanderthal was also buried with several varieties of flowers. Leaky stated that the flowers were arranged deliberately as the body was being covered. Apparently the family and friends of the deceased gathered the distinct species of flowers, carried them to the grave, and carefully placed them on the body.
An analysis of the flower specimens revealed them to be cornflowers, St. Banaby’s thistle, and grape hyacinths, among other plants. Many of the plants found have curative qualities that range from pain relief to inflammation suppression. It is not known if Neanderthals were advanced enough to realize the exact medicinal properties of the plants to their specific uses, or if this was only a coincidental placement of flowers and herbs. Or perhaps they were honoring a special person of the tribe, such as a medicine man or shaman. Regardless, it is evident that Neanderthal man was much more complex than he was given credit for.
History of Burial
70,000 B.C.E.
Earliest discovered burial sites of Neanderthal man.
3600 B.C.E.
Earliest known attempts to mummify bodies in Egypt.
3000 B.C.E.
Ancient Chileans mummify bodies.
1000 B.C.E.
Ancient Greeks cremate their dead.
625 B.C.E.
Mourners in Ancient Greece place metal coins under the tongues of
the dead.
600 B.C.E.
Romans cremate their dead.
Welcome to unexplained mysteries. this sweet little block will help you get in touch with some of the most intriguing and baffling mysteries throughout the history of humanity. We will talk about the bizarre, the unexplained and the paranormal too.
Few of these are very commonplace and people talk about them all the time. Few of these are gathering dust in books in libraries all across the world. pleased to leave your comments and Let me know if there is a particular topic you want research on if this something that you do not agree with written in here.
Let us take journey together into the unknown, into the unexplained.
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