Scottish Mummies pre-date Tutankhamun...

reply to post by Pimander


Some of those remains are very well preserved too. The silk roads seem to follow natural migration pathways between harsh deserts and high mountains, so it's not too surprising that nomadic peoples used (and still use) them. What is more surprising is that no caucasoid populations survived in the area. The last known were the Sythians, but they eventually interbred with other local populations, having spread themselves very wide.

Originally posted by NocturnalPhantom
reply to post by Pimander

 

Some of those remains are very well preserved too. The silk roads seem to follow natural migration pathways between harsh deserts and high mountains, so it's not too surprising that nomadic peoples used (and still use) them. What is more surprising is that no caucasoid populations survived in the area. The last known were the Sythians, but they eventually interbred with other local populations, having spread themselves very wide.

Regarding the silk road - especially in India, I heard legends of Jesus travelling there in the 'missing' parts of the life in the bible and also some people even claim during that time he even visited Europe and possibly Britain.

news.bbc.co.uk...

"It is generally suggested that he came to the west of England with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who was here for tin," said the academic.
Dr Strachan claimed Jesus Christ could have come to England to further his education.
"He needed to go around to learn bits and pieces about ancient wisdom, and the druids in Britain went back hundreds if not thousands of years. He probably came here to meet the druids, to share his wisdom and gain theirs."
Among the places Jesus is said to have visited are Penzance, Falmouth, St-Just-in-Roseland and Looe, which are all in Cornwall, as well as Glastonbury in Somerset - which has particular legends about Jesus.
"St Augustine wrote to the Pope to say he'd discovered a church in Glastonbury built by followers of Jesus. But St Gildas (a 6th-Century British cleric) said it was built by Jesus himself. It's a very very ancient church which went back perhaps to AD37."

Hopefully i'm not derailing from the Scottish Mummies and by no means do I wish to engage in a religious debate, i'm simply trying to enjoy researching these pieces of puzzles of the Celts, early Britons, the spread of the tribes across Europe and Asia and India - and since we've mentioned England the Druids, I thought it might be interesting to elaborate on the idea that Jesus may have consulted pagans and ritualistic druids whilst travelling to our shores.

www.greatdreams.com...

William of Malmesbury includes in his writings the contents of a letter given by King Ina to Glastonbury, 700 AD."To the ancient church, situate in the place called Glastonbury (which Church the Great High Priest and Chiefest Minister formerly through His own ministry, and that of angels....." This confirms Gildas' statement that Jesus had a ministry at Glastonbury.

The historical records called the Domesday Surveys, also bear witness to Jesus' presence in Glastonbury. These surveys state that Glastonbury contained 12 hides (160 acre parcels) of land that "have never paid tax." This was because the King Arviragus gave these parcels to Joseph of Arimathea when he arrived in England in 37 AD.

Food for thought at least.

reply to post by mr-lizard

Where to start, eh? Well, firstly, Jesus lived in the Roman Empire, where trade contact with Britain was already well established, and given that Gaul (France) at that time was pretty much the same Druidic culture as Britain, he may well have picked up things from soldiers, traders, slaves, travellers or migrants.

Another thing to consider is Which Jesus? Does the Christ of faith reflect the Jesus of history, or is he a composite figure, of which Historical Jesus was only one component.

And another thing to remember is that in Britain, Christianity did not so much replace paganism, but rather, absorbed it, taking on many pagan rites and myths, but replacing a lot of names with Biblical ones. The idea of Jesus travelling to India is not a new one, but I'm not sure a Galilean peasant would have that much freedom to cross inter-imperial frontiers, but who knows? There are long standing, but small, Jewish and Christian communities in India who do have legends like this, and there is an unAbrahamic level of asceticism in Jesus' story which does fit in more with certain schools of Hindu/Buddhist thought.

I'm going to have to come clean here and admit that I actually despise Glastonbury, its a dreadful place full of tourist gimmicks and heroine addicts.

Every time I go I end up bad tempered and irritable. I can't bear the 'pseudo hippies' that wander around and the shop keepers that fleece the pockets of the gullible tourists.

The Tor its self is fine if you go there when no-one else happens to be there but if your unlucky you'll find 'Kestral' and his group of airy fairy tambourine players waffling on about spiritual nonsense that they make up off the top of their heads and threatening to read your cards or worse 'cleanse' you.

In my opinion what ever spiritual residues were are at Glastonbury they have been long wiped out by all the greedy merchants and criminal mediums and healers.

-rant over-

reply to post by Versa


Can't argue with you there - Didn't come away with too many positive feelings besides appreciating the land - too many fake witches, druids and pseudo-spiritual people, all egotistically trying to become THE next priestess or as you say - selling expensive gimmicky crap.

But the town itself (and one or two of the pubs) are decent.

reply to post by Versa


Damn right! These people have prostituted their spirituality and made it into another commodity and cheap gimmick. It's quite sad to see really. Nice to see the sites but I avoid the groupies like the plague.

reply to post by mr-lizard


There's only two things that draw me to Glasto nowadays: the woods and the view of the Levels. I hate the way these utter charlatans look down on the rest of us. Total hypocracy! Don't misunderstand me, I am a very "spiritual" man, but I just live it. I don't need made-up names (except on here,lol), I don't need fancy dress and I don't need gimmicky mumbo-jumbo. I don't normally roam alone. My dog comes with me, and the day any of these weirdos start hassling me when I'm just trying to take in the vibes, I think I shall save a bit of money on dog food!

reply to post by NocturnalPhantom


True - but maybe I was a tad harsh - still some nice people amongst the disillusioned, and some genuinely good book stores too.

--

Now about these Scottish mummies - Maybe the old pagan belief was to sacrifice parts of each animal, maybe as a sacrifice to various gods, but as a whole - as one collective sacrifice?

Maybe?

reply to post by mr-lizard


My personal view is that they probably sacrificed people to generate a good harvest. I suspect the mummies were made composite in order to embody the tribe or clan as a whole, rather than one person. This would suggest some form of totemism based on ancestor worship. Then again, I don't really know.

Right about the bookshops. Don't like the cultists.

Originally posted by Versa
I'm going to have to come clean here and admit that I actually despise Glastonbury, its a dreadful place full of tourist gimmicks and heroine addicts.

Every time I go I end up bad tempered and irritable. I can't bear the 'pseudo hippies' that wander around and the shop keepers that fleece the pockets of the gullible tourists.

You have to take the smack heads (there are plenty in the cities too) and the rest comes with the tourism and pseudo religious nonsense I'm afraid. Some of the book shops have some hard to get stuff so there are benefits to the tourism. You aren't forced to go into the jewellery and gift shops after all.

I still like the place despite all the silliness. I can't agree that it's dreadful.

reply to post by Pimander

Well, I for one will continue to go there regardless. It's not the general hippy crowd that annoy me, it's the wannabe gurus and would-be High Priests/Priestesses and their ilk that annoy me. And they can be so bloody smarmy amd smug, too. But on the whole, I still like the place.

Originally posted by mr-lizard

Now about these Scottish mummies - Maybe the old pagan belief was to sacrifice parts of each animal, maybe as a sacrifice to various gods, but as a whole - as one collective sacrifice?

Maybe?

That is an interesting idea

maybe they took the best part of each person/animal? For example one person was very strong so they took their arms, one person was very beautiful so they took their head, one was very wise so the brain, one fast so the legs etc?

As gross as it seems maybe they made a composite perfect person?

reply to post by Versa


That sounds like a very reasonable idea. In fact, that's the best one I've heard so far. But what I also wonder is what they did with the parts that weren't needed, or the whole body of a sacrifice with nothing worth keeping?
Did they bury them? Cremate them? Feed them to the wolves? Use their bones to make implements? Eat them?

None of those would surprise me. As fascinating as our ancient past is, I'm sure glad I wasn't there. Unless reincarnation is true, in which case, I'm glad I don't remember being there.

Originally posted by NocturnalPhantom
reply to post by Versa

 

That sounds like a very reasonable idea. In fact, that's the best one I've heard so far. But what I also wonder is what they did with the parts that weren't needed.

that's something I'm not sure I want to know!!! I'd hope they burnt them as that was the normal way of disposing of bodies then wasn't it?

I like to think that if the body was donating a part that was somehow special then the rest of the corpse would be treated with some respect....

reply to post by Versa


But food shortages and famine were quite common in pre-historic times, and many prehistoric bones do have those tell-tale scrape marks....no, actually, I don't wanna think about it either!

I hope to be stuffed and mounted and made in to a scarecrow, for what it's worth. Mummification with a practical usage. A lot of people round here have allotments, and crows, starlings and seagulls can be a nuisance.