Massive Black Sarcophagus Contained 3 Inscriptions [Archive]

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Skywizard

23rd August 2018, 20:39

https://img.purch.com/w/660/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwMS8zNzQvb3JpZ2luYWwvc25ha2UuSlBH

This image shows an unhooded snake. Snakes were common images in
ancient Egypt, and were sometimes associated with the goddess Isis.

Three drawings, incised on three sheets of gold, have been discovered in a massive black granite sarcophagus in Alexandria, Egypt.

One expert, not involved with the research, told Live Science that one of the drawings may depict the seed pod of an opium poppy within a shrine. The significance of this enigmatic drawing is still not clear, the expert said.

https://img.purch.com/r/560x315/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwMS8zNzYvb3JpZ2luYWwvcG9zc2libGUtc2VlZC1wb2Qt b3BpdW0tcG9wcHkuSlBHPzE1MzQ4MDE5MDc=

This may show the seed of an opium poppy within a shrine, an
expert told Live Science. Opium was popular in Egypt around
2,000 years ago.

Black sarcophagus revealed
The black granite sarcophagus, which is 9 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall (2.7 by 1.5 by 1.8 meters), became a media sensation after its discovery in Alexandria in early July. When the container was opened, three skeletons and a bunch of sewage were discovered inside the sarcophagus. The age of the sarcophagus is uncertain, but archaeologists believe that it could date back to sometime between 304 B.C. and 30 B.C., a time when the descendants of one of Alexander the Great's generals ruled Egypt.

Over the past month, archaeologists and conservators have been going through the stinky remains, and yesterday (Aug. 19), the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced in a statement that the three small sheets, with incised drawings, had been discovered within the sarcophagus. Archaeologists with the ministry did not comment in the statement on what the images show or mean.

Researchers also learned more information about the three skeletons. One came from a woman who was between 20 and 25 years old when she died, while the other two came from men who were in their 30s or 40s at time of their deaths.

One of the skeletons had a 0.7 inch (1.7 centimeters) hole in the skull, which could mean that the man underwent the surgical intervention called "trepanation," meaning the hole was deliberately drilled, Nadia Kheider, head of the Central Department of Antiquities of Lower Egypt, said in the ministry statement. The procedure was often used in the ancient world, believed to help alleviate a variety of medical problems.

http://a57.foxnews.com/images.foxnews.com/content/fox-news/science/2018/08/21/cursed-ancient-egyptian-sarcophagus-reveals-its-grisly-secrets/_jcr_content/article-text/article-par-9/inline_spotlight_ima/image.img.jpg/612/344/1534881854064.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

The skull of one of the men has a hole that is about 1.7 cm (0.7 inches)
in diameter. This person may have undergone "trepanation," a medical
procedure often used in ancient times. It was believed that it could treat
a variety of medical problems.

"This surgery is the oldest surgical intervention ever known since prehistory but was rare in Egypt," Zeinab Hashish, a skeletal expert who works for the ministry, said in the statement.

Mysterious drawings
Live Science reached out to several experts not affiliated with the research to ask what the drawings found incised on the gold sheets might show and mean.

Few of the researchers were able to respond at time of publication, but one scholar who did was Jack Ogden, the president of the Society of Jewellery Historians. He has conducted an extensive amount of research (including his doctoral thesis) on Egyptian gold jewelry from the period around 2,000 years ago.

One of the drawings is a snake that doesn't have a hood, Ogden said, noting that this is commonly seen in Egyptian jewelry. Unhooded snakes "had connotations of rebirth — they shed their skin — and thus [are] perfect in a funerary connection," said Ogden. Unhooded snakes "were seemingly connected with the goddess Isis."

"As a rule of thumb, it would seem that snake jewellery was primarily a female thing, but I am not sure whether one could suggest that the presence of a snake here suggests it was connected with the female occupant of the sarcophagus" Ogden said.

Another drawing shows a palm branch or ear of corn, both of which are common motifs "related to fertility and rebirth," Ogden said.

https://amp.livescience.com/images/i/000/101/377/original/corn-palmbranch.JPG?1534802068

An image of a corn ear or palm branch incised onto a sheet of gold.
It was found inside the massive black granite sarcophagus. Palm
branches and ears of corn were symbols of fertility and rebirth in
ancient Egypt.

The most enigmatic drawings show what may be the seed pod of an opium poppy within a shrine, although Ogden emphasized that he cannot be certain what the drawing shows.

"Opium seems to have been quite widely used in Greco-Roman Egypt for medicinal purposes, but there may be some connection — in the ancient mind at least — between its sleep- and dream-inducing qualities and death and rebirth," Ogden said. "It is intriguing."

Additionally, a small gold artifact, whose purpose is unclear, was found in the sarcophagus. Researchers with the ministry did not say in the statement if there are any drawings or inscriptions on it.

Source: https://www.livescience.com/63384-black-sarcophagus-alexandria-inscriptions.html

http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/p/peace/graphics-peace-740037.gifpeace...

ichingcarpenter

23rd August 2018, 21:28

Interesting

The gold plates are just over an inch wide in other words tiny. I find them to be archaic, primitive and amature in style which may mean that they were done not by an artisan of any worth. I wonder how the three skeletons are connected together to be placed in one box? I doubt there is enough DNA to see if they were related or were even from the same time period. Was this burial a lover's triangle that went wrong? Who paid for the box and decided to use it ? Like I said before this extremely hard dense stone is only found hundreds of miles either at Aswan or the Sinai mts. I saw earlier there was inscriptions on the outside of the box yet no mention of that?

Another Egyptian mystery....... thanks
for the update

Jayke

23rd August 2018, 21:50

Fascinating! The dating of 304BC seems consistent with rituals of the Orphic mysteries and Bacchus traditions of that era:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totenpass

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Orphic_Gold_Tablet_%28Thessaly-The_Getty_Villa%2C_Malibu%29.jpg

Totenpass (plural Totenpässe) is a German term sometimes used for inscribed tablets or metal leaves found in burials primarily of those presumed to be initiates into Orphic, Dionysiac, and some ancient Egyptian and Semitic religions. The term may be understood in English as a "passport for the dead".[1] The so-called Orphic gold tablets are perhaps the best-known example.

Totenpässe are placed on or near the body as a phylactery, or rolled and inserted into a capsule often worn around the neck as an amulet. The inscription instructs the initiate on how to navigate the afterlife, including directions for avoiding hazards in the landscape of the dead and formulaic responses to the underworld judges...

...The Getty Museum owns an outstanding example of a 4th-century BC Orphic prayer sheet from Thessaly, a gold-leaf rectangle measuring about 26 by 38 mm (1.0 by 1.5 in).[2] The burial site of a woman also in Thessaly and dating to the late 4th century BC yielded a pair of Totenpässe in the form of lamellae (Latin, "thin metal sheets", singular lamella). Although the term "leaf" to describe metal foil is a modern metaphorical usage,[3] these lamellae were in this case cut in the shape of cordate leaves probably meant to represent ivy; most Totenpässe of this type are rectangular. The Greek lettering is not inscribed in regular lines as it is on the rectangular tablets, but rambles to fit the shape. The leaves are paper-thin and small, one measuring 40 by 31 mm (1.6 by 1.2 in) and the other 35 by 30 mm (1.4 by 1.2 in). They had been arranged symmetrically on the woman's chest, with her lips sealed by a gold danake, or "Charon's obol", the coin that pays the ferryman of the dead for passage; this particular coin depicted the head of a Gorgon. Also placed in the tomb was a terracotta figurine of a maenad, one of the ecstatic women in the retinue of Dionysus.

Bill Ryan

23rd August 2018, 21:55

The black granite sarcophagus, which is 9 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall (2.7 by 1.5 by 1.8 meters), became a media sensation after its discovery in Alexandria in early July.

For interesting reference, here's the Avalon thread about that discovery:

Mysterious giant sarcophagus discovered in Egypt (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103449-Mysterious-giant-sarcophagus-discovered-in-Egypt)

gord

23rd August 2018, 22:30

https://amp.livescience.com/images/i/000/101/377/original/corn-palmbranch.JPG?1534802068

An image of a corn ear or palm branch incised onto a sheet of gold.It was found inside the massive black granite sarcophagus. Palm branches and ears of corn were symbols of fertility and rebirth in ancient Egypt.

I thought corn was indigenous to the western hemisphere and didn't exist in ancient Egypt.

Jayke

23rd August 2018, 23:03

I thought corn was indigenous to the western hemisphere and didn't exist in ancient Egypt.

The Greeks had conquered Egypt by then, or shall we say Alexander the Great was secretly the son of Zeus-Ammon (the mystery tradition name for the leader of Eleusian mystery cult) who also happened to be the pharaoh of Egypt at the time, so, Alexander was really imposing his divine right as heir to the Egyptian throne. (Watersson, 1998 (https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4005072) 1st chapter)

The Egyptian/Greek mystery traditions were already dispersed across wide territories by then though, especially in the upper echelons of society, as a study into Thracian Magic (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thracian-Magic-Present-Georgi-Mishev/dp/1905297483) would attest.

Book Description

Thracian Magic: past & present is a phenomenal volume of work by the Bulgarian author Georgi Mishev, which opens up the treasure trove of folklore and magical practices of the Balkan Peninsula into the English language for the first time. The author examines the magical practices of modern day Bulgaria and the surrounding Balkan countries, tracing them to their roots in the ritual traditions of Thrace and the Mystery Cults of the ancient world.

The ritual practices of the Thracians survived through Christian and other overlays for many centuries in Balkan communities through into modern Bulgaria, carried by successive generations of practitioners. Evidence for the antiquity of these modern survivals can be found in numerous ancient literary sources, including the Hittite ritual texts, the Greek Magical Papyri, the Orphic Argonautica, the Derweni Papyrus, as well as in the writings of Homer, Plato, Strabo and others. Further clues are found in curse tablets and other archaeological finds. The transmission of the ancient mysteries through Orpheus, Musaeus, Eumolpus, Zalmoxis, Rhesus, the Thracian Prophetess of Dionysos and the nymph Thrake are all considered in turn, to help demonstrate the distinctive flavour found in the practices of the region. Likewise the ways in which secret knowledge was preserved, as well as the roles of both the Healer and the Magician in Bulgarian traditional culture shed additional light on the diversity and depth to be found in the research presented in this volume. The importance and survival of the Great Goddess in the practices and beliefs of the region is explored in the final chapter of the book, 'Concepts Of The Goddess'. Here the reader is introduced to the roles of goddesses such as Hekate, Artemis and Bendis, as well as to the Mother of the Sun, the Mountain Mother, the Virgin Mistress of Fire and the She-Wolf.

Additionally, both the continued existence and re-emergence of the Great Goddess in the form of Christian saints such as the Mother of God, Fiery Marina, Petka and Nedelya are examined in turn, alongside the Samodivi forest spirits who combine the characteristics of both nymphs and ancient goddesses. From divination to healing, initiation to fertility spells, curses to protection from the evil eye and other malefic influences, this book embraces and reveals the scope of a living tradition with its roots deep in the ancient world.

Thracian Magic: past & present opens up the field of study in a unique way, being both practical and accessible, whilst simultaneously maintaining its scholarly integrity. ~ "One writes about magical practice most commonly either from the position of a scholar or from the position of a practitioner. The book, which G. Mishev offers us, leads the reader into the secrets of the magical with the dignity of a descendant and carrier of millennial traditions, preserved in the South-eastern European area, and with the passion of an explorer, rushing towards the light of knowledge." Prof. Dr. Sc. Valeria Fol ~

It’s more likely to be a symbol of a barley bushel than corn, since it’s from fermented barley that they speculate, Kykeon (https://www.ancient.eu/Kykeon/), the hallucinogenic beverage of the Eleusian mystery cults was derived.

It would also explain the other 2 symbols, Opium and snake venom being 2 other known hallucinogenics.

Spellbound

24th August 2018, 02:10

Laurel

24th August 2018, 03:30

https://img.purch.com/r/560x315/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwMS8zNzYvb3JpZ2luYWwvcG9zc2libGUtc2VlZC1wb2Qt b3BpdW0tcG9wcHkuSlBHPzE1MzQ4MDE5MDc=
This may show the seed of an opium poppy within a shrine, an
expert told Live Science. Opium was popular in Egypt around
2,000 years ago.

I think this looks like a pomegranate which was very symbolic.