Cave Paintings - Early Man Battling Inner Demons

An archaeological team from the University of Cambridge discovered cave paintings in the northern parts of Spain, Cantabria, that suggest prehistoric humans battled against their own inner demons, fears, and insecurities that bothered them as they struggled with life’s demands during the Paleolithic era.

The images found on the limestone walls and ceiling of the cave trace back to 14,000 B.C. and seem to indicate that early hunter-gatherers were often anxious about their ability to kill game animals, reeled from the challenges of raising a family.

While these pictographs are crude in terms of their rendering of human anatomy, they have a vivid expressive quality that led the archaeological team to surmise that Ice Age humans had an awful lot of personal stuff going on.

Some of the images in the cave include a downcast man apparently being mocked by potential mates for his inability to start a fire, a woman using a stone chopping implement to cut her own body, and a seated man seemingly resigned to his fate at the approach of a charging mastodon. Further chemical analysis will have to be conducted to determine if the ominous red handprints along the walls were symbolic works rendered in red ochre or simply the result of anguished early humans striking the stone surface until they started to bleed.

Remarkably, with just a few basic pigments and the most primitive painting tools, our ancestors could so intensely portray their dread of dying alone or their toxic jealously of alpha males. Only a highly skilled but extremely alienated artist could use nothing but melted animal fat blown through a hollow bone to convey his dismay at having no one he could consider a close friend and realizing he was too old to make new ones. It’s clear that these humans felt so disconnected from one another, so unable to constructively address their problems, that they used these sad, disturbing paintings as their sole outlet for comfort.

The paintings not only represent the ability of Late Stone Age humans to express their immediate emotional torment but perhaps also to construct larger, more elaborate narratives of their prolonged, agonizing downward spirals. Through paint-application analysis and radiocarbon dating methods, Reddy said his team was able to determine that individual artists sometimes depicted their unraveling over a series of months or even years.

Some figures indicate people gorging on bison and growing more and more obese, apparently stuck in a lengthy cycle of compulsive overeating. The self-destructive pattern was broken only once by an extremely brief sequence of dynamic images suspected to be a quickly abandoned attempt at aerobic activity. The drawings finally stop after about 20 meters with a half-finished pictograph of what we speculate is the poor man attempting and failing to fit into his deer-hide frock and pants and then, out of apparent shame, opting not to leave his cave all day.

The discovery of the images comes just weeks after archaeologists uncovered a separate set of cave paintings in southern France, whose artists reportedly hunted, reared children, and otherwise did the best they could without taking themselves so seriously.

William Wallace - 5th of August

Today marks the day when the Scottish hero William Wallace was captured by the English and sentenced to death. 
On the 5th of August of the year 1305, Sir William Wallace who led the Scottish resistance against England, was captured by the English, near Glasgow, and transported to London where he was put on trial and executed. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September 1297, and was appointed Guardian of Scotland, serving until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk in July 1298. 
When Wallace was captured and handed over to King Edward I of England, the brutal king had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason. Since his death, Wallace has obtained an iconic status far beyond his homeland. To the Scots, William Wallace is a national hero and an exemplar of unbending commitment to Scotland’s independence.

Shaman gathering in Tuva

The gathering of the most powerful shamans from different parts of the globe, have arrived in the Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia, near the border with Mongolia. Shamans from Sweden, Greenland, Mexico, Mongolia, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, gathering at the festival devoted to the shamanic culture.

Asite from participants all over the world, this festival attracted shamans from four different corners of the regions of Russia. Altai, Khakassia, Yakutia and Tuva. All sorts of shamanic practices can been seen in this great event, such as drum rites, rituals, throat singing and meditation. The organizers also promise to hold interesting seminars and master classes on the spiritual practices of shamans and divination. Typical healing dances will also be taught to whoever wants to learn. The global goal of the festival is the revival of the shamanic traditions.

The festival is called "Call of 13 Shamans" and the idea came from its originator, the khoomei throat singing master Nikolay Oorzhak, a hereditary Tuvan shaman from the Black Heaven clan. 

The festival is taking place for the first time and so far without any sponsor support.

The honorary guest of the festival, the Mexican shaman Don Rogelio Carrillo, said that it was the similarity in the traditions of his people and those of Tuvans that drew him to the distant Siberian region.

Working With The Gods : Freyr

Because this month started with a celebration to Freyr, it seems that talking about him would be a good opportunity, because he is one of the most famous gods in the Nordic pantheon and many feel both love and respect and are inclined to worship him.

Freyr is one of the very few norse deities easier to work with. He is a kind god, fair, willing to help. Freyr likes homemade food, such as bread and vegetables from your farm or home garden, food as natural and organic as possible. Freyr encourages people to grow their own food. Freyr also likes meat, although he prefers fruits and vegetables, but if you really want to give him meat, make sure it comes from an animal who was raised in a farm, in good conditions, with an healthy, happy life, well taken care of until its death. Freyr isn't a vegetarian deity, he doesn't encourage people to eat only vegetables and fruits, but he his a deity that shows much respect for all living things, that is why if you serve him meat, that mustn't be from the poorly, horrible, industrial business that slaughters animals in mass, and treats them like an old sack of potatoes. Serve him food without any chemical poisons as well. Freyr also likes beer and I has a thing for cherries.

The colors of Freyr are yellow, green and gold. If you want to use a specific type of clothing just to work with Freyr in any ritual, use one made of linen, or cotton, cloths made of fiber from plants, he will be happy about it.

Take notice, that unlike many of the Norse deities who require a kind of weapon in rituals and ceremonies, Freyr doesn't want one, while working with him, be sure that you don't bring a weapon of any kind. Freyr works with both genders, men and women.

Viking Medieval Compass

For hundreds of years historians have seen the Vikings through the eyes of the medieval Irish christians priests who met these people and suffered the terror they brought to their lands. But the first 10 years of the XXI century brought new interesting discoveries from the Viking period, and what was once myth, is now reality. The Vikings have been often regarded as ruthless pillagers, but they are also known as outstanding mariners.
New discoveries and interpretations of a medieval compass, suggest that the Vikings may have skillfully used the sun to operate this object even when the sun had set, and even before rising again.

The remains of the supposed compass known as the Uunartoq disc, found in Greenland in 1948 in an 11th century convent, led some researchers to argued it was simply a decorative object. Other researchers have suggested the disc was an important navigational tool that the Vikings would have used in their roughly 1,600-mile-long (2,500 kilometers) trek from Norway to Greenland. Though only half of the wooden disc remains, it is estimated to have been roughly 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) in diameter with a now-lost central pin that would have cast a shadow from the sun indicative of a cardinal direction.

Researchers from a University in Hungary have studied the fragment in detail. It was concluded that although the disc could have functioned as a single entity, it was more likely used in conjunction with other tools, including a pair of crystals and a flat, wooden slab to help navigate when the sun was low in the sky or even below the horizon.
When the sun is low above the horizon, the shadow of a small item can fall off the board, and such situations are frequent in the northern seas, as Balázs Bernáth says.
To help solve this shadow problem, the Vikings may have used an object in the middle of the compass to create a wider, shorter shadow. A wide hole within the center of the disk, which was previously thought to be the place to grip the compass, could have served as a holding sport for the object that would solve the problem.

The researchers think that, to locate the sun after sunset, the Vikings could have used a pair of crystals known as sunstones, which are calcite stones that produce patterns when they're exposed to the polarization of UV rays within sunlight. When the crystals are held up to the sky, the orientation of these patterns cast within the stone can help pinpoint the position of the sun below the horizon.
Once the Vikings had determined the position of the hidden sun, they could have used a specially designed wooden slab called a shadow stick to simulate the shadow of the gnomon based on the angle at which the hidden sun would hit it. The location of the outer edge of that imaginary shadow could then have been used to determine their cardinal direction.

Field tests were held by the researchers, to estimate the plausible accuracy of this twilight compass. They have found that this would have worked with only 4 degrees of error, which is way better than other forms of celestial navigation. It is estimated that this compass would have functioned for as long as 50 minutes after the sun was down the horizontal line, around the spring equinox, when the Vikings are thought to have used this compass based on etchings in the wood.

No shadow sticks or sunstones have been found in conjunction with the disc, but evidence of both exist in medieval written records, suggesting they would have been available to the Vikings.

Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula

Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula

ATTENTION! Read the description below. This is NOT Fiction. This is my final work after 6 months of research, from historical books and documentation as my source of study.

As you can see in this map that I have made, the red area are the territories where the Vikings have been. Between the IX and XI centuries the Vikings invaded the Iberian Peninsula. They did not only raid territories, but also made settlements, colonies, winter camps and also made a living. More than 200 years of Viking presence in the land, documented in that time by the peoples that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula. Lots of raids, battles, colonisations, invasions, and so on, have been registered, but I'm certain that the Vikings went further inland, because they used the rivers as their routes to spread all over the land. Note that in these 200 years, the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula and their boundaries changed a lot. Territories have been conquered and lost, the christian kingdoms of the North against the Muslim kingdom of the South. The christian kingdoms of the North belonged to the Germanic descendants of the Iberian Peninsula who made the first Christian Kingdoms of the land, after the decline of the Roman Empire. The kingdoms were formed around the V century C.E. by the Swabians, Vandals, Goths and Visigoths, all germanic peoples from nowadays Germany, Norway and Lower Sweden respectively. In the beginning of the VIII century C.E. the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Muslims, who pushed the germanic territories to the north, thus ending the germanic nations of the Iberian lands. Between the IX and XI centuries, the Vikings invaded these lands, and fought against the descendants of their ancestors and also against the Muslims of the south. Many battles were recorded, on both land and sea. But the Vikings also colonised territories, such as modern Povoa de Varzim in northern Portugal, and left many decendents in other places. Archaeology helps digging up the truth, and we are still finding a lot of Norse evidence in the land. We also know that defeated Vikings couldn't return home, and they ended up living all over the landscape, such is the case of the city of Cordova in modern southern Spain. Most Vikings raided during Summer, and they didn't return home to pass the Winter, they just built winter camps along the coast and near the main rivers, waiting to raid again when the warmer seasons started.
The christian kingdoms of the north conquered many territories to the Muslims, and the christian faith was spreading all over Europe, and would soon came to Northern Europe. The crusades were formed, and after these 200 years of Viking raids in the Iberian Peninsula, the Vikings (now christianized) helped the Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, to defeat and drive away the Muslims from the land. There are thousands of documents about this and also paintings that depict these events, Viking longboats side by side with the boats of the soon-to-be Portuguese, invading Nowadays Lisbon for example, and taking back the land, battling and making siege against the Muslims. The Kingdom of Portugal (and also the other Kingdoms of Spain) rewarded the Norse men for their help against the Muslims, and gave them lands to inhabit. Once in a while we find and dig their graves and watch the modern people of those lands and see their descendants, wearing the glimpse of their Norse ancestors. 
Not many historians talk about the Norse peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), so I have made this map to show that these countries, not only have a rich germanic history, but also a very rich Norse history, as well as Celtic and Roman. Once again I must point out, that this map is NOT the source of Fiction, it is the final work of 6 months of research. I hope you all like it.

Made with watercolor and gel pen.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of the Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula, made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Note2: If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me at http://ask.fm/ArithHarger

Tomb of Attila the Hun found?

In the Hungarian Capital, while construction workers were building the new bridge over the Danube River in Budapest, they have unearthed an amazing 5th century sepulchre. The analysis of the monument revealed to be the burial chamber of a hunnic leader of great importance, most likely of King Attila himself.
Many horse skeletons were found in the burial, as well as various weapons and other artefacts, all traditionally associated with the Huns. There was also a large sword made of meteoric iron, probably Attila's legendary “Holy War Sword of the Scythians”, allegedly given to him by the god Mars himself.
Attila was so named “the scourge of God” by Roman historians, he was the ruler of the Huns. A nomadic people originating possibly from Central Asia.
Attila ruled from 434 A.D., until his death in 453 after a feast celebrating his latest marriage to a beautiful and young gothic princess known as Ildico. He led many military raids on both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires provoking what has become known as the Barbarian Invasions or the Great Migration, a large movement of germanic populations that greatly accelerated the fall of Rome and the advent of the Middle Ages in Europe. Attila his considered by most Hungarians, as the founder of the country.
The discovery of this burial site could bring many clarifications concerning the origins and identity of the hunnic people and of Attila himself, which have both been sources of debate for centuries. The analysis of pieces of pottery and jewelry found on the site, should bring a new light on their cultural origins and trade networks, and help scientists better understand this poorly documented people.