A skeleton bursts out of the ground

Sometimes archaeologists are in contact with really strange things, until a plausible explanation is found, of course. Very recently, archaeologists were astonished when a thousand-year-old skeleton was found entwined in the roots of a tree ripped from the ground after a great storm.

The Skeleton of a young man was unearthed after a great storm blew over an old tree near Collooney - Sligo - Ireland, thus revealing this peculiar finding. This was the burial place of a young man, between his 17's and 20's, who is believed to have had a violent and brutal death during the Early Medieval Ages. (The death of this young man took place around 1030-1200 AD) The skeleton shows Several injuries which are visible in the ribs and hands, probably inflicted by a knife.

What more secrets can this fellow tell us? It remains to be study.

Another Neolithic site near Stonehenge

The buried remains of a mysterious prehistoric monument, close to the famous Stonehenge, has been found. This new site with 90 standing stones, of enormous size (close to 15 feet - 4 meters and half). However, this monument could originally have comprised up to 200 stones. Dating back to more or less 4,500 years ago, may have been used in neolithic times for rituals or as some kind of arena. 

The newly discovered stones are thought to have been toppled over, with the bank of the later Durrington Walls henge built over them (being the Durrington Walls an immense monument, so-called "superhenge", located less than three kilometres (1.8 miles) from Stonehenge. The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after Stonehenge - a ring of standing stones believed to have been erected between 3,000 and 2,000 BC. It is believed that the new stone row recently discovered could date back to the same period, or even earlier.

Triora - The Witches' City

The "city" of Triora, known as the "city" of Witches, is located in Italy and it's a small village in the hills of the Valle Argentina (not in Argentina of course, we are talking about Italy - Europe) near the border with France.

Much of the architecture of the village dates back to the 12th century, but the most famous period of this village was during the 16th century when a certain number of women (not clear how many, but the number was great enough to be remembered to this day) were sentenced to death by being burned alive by the Inquisition.

In this village, supposedly, a curse overshadowed it during the Middle Ages. Two years of bad weather followed it, as well as drought and famine because of shortages in agriculture, which in the year of 1587 the church and all most of the villages denizens were certain that witches were conspiring against the village. A group of women from Triora and nearby villages were accused of sacrificing infants and offering them to the devil. They were tried, tortured and burned alive during a long period between the years of  1587 and 1589. The ruins of La Cabotina where hypothetically they did their blasphemous rituals still exists to this day.

These women actually had a vast knowledge of medicinal herbs and worked with such herbs, turning them into medicines and oils to heal the sick. A tradition that was passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter; from generation to generation this traditions was passed down. Apparently this fact was enough evidence to accuse these women of witchcraft.

This dark event in the history of Triora, which led so many to a gruesome and horrible death, is still remembered today. Triora's residents seem to have a morbid pride about the dark history of their village. A museum, shops with witchcraft items, signage, sculptures, witch houses and various relics were placed and preserved, and can be seen throughout the entire village. There are a number of events and folk festivals, and witches are the main theme (of course). There are three annual festivals: Witchcraft and summer Divinations Festival during August, and two autumn celebrations: the Mushroom Festival in September and Halloween in late October.

Triora has an ethnological museum, old documents and objects that belonged to people who claimed to be witches and a sort of wax museum - reproducing scenes of the arrest and interrogation of women suspected of witchcraft. In the village there is also an association of witches, whose members are descendants of people accused of witchcraft and burned alive.

The Yule Celebrations in Northern Europe

The December celebrations were held by many cultures throughout Europe; for instance, to the romans, the 24th of December was the day the deity Mithras was born. But in this post, I shall exclusively talk about the celebration of Yule.

Yule or Yule-tide is a winter celebration, initially commemorated by the Germanic peoples as a pagan religious festivity, later absorbed into the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival wasn't only held on a particular day. It was celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. However, this festival was placed on December 25th when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted.


The term "Yule" is still used nowadays throughout Europe for the Christian celebrations and other holidays during this season, as well as to refer to Christmas. Apart from this, there are other minor Yule celebrations which are equally important, traditional and historically remote. For example, the Yule Log is another custom, or the Yule goat, Yule boar, the singing Yule carols) and so on.

In modern times, although Yule starts with the chiming of the church-bells in the afternoon of julaften (“Yule Eve” on December 24th), the previous day - lillejulaften (little Christmas Eve) - is when the tree is put up and decorated and the actual starting date for he 13 day long Yule celebration in Scandinavia begins. Julaften remains the main event and it is the reminder of the celebrations held by our ancestors in ancient times.

The time period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, is called romjul. Occasionally children dress up in costumes and visit neighbours, where they sing Yuletide carols and receive treats like candy, nuts and clementines. This tradition is called julebukk. In olden days, in certain areas of Scandinavia, adults commonly went from house to house to drink with their neighbors; an event called Toftirus, during the 13 days surrounding Christmas eve.

A tiny list of pagan death-deities

The Deities of different cultures have always had their importance amongst the populace. We find many archaeological artifacts since pre-history till the early medieval ages (where in some places the old gods were still worshiped) of deities linked to fertility; the so called smithing gods linked to atmospheric changes and the power of natural forces of the sky and their influence over the earth. But such artefacts representing the fertility deities are linked to the common folk, whose work was agro-pastoral.

People worship the deities more closed to them and to their needs and professional affairs. So it is only obvious that common folk would worship fertility gods and deities related with farming, sexuality, protection and so on, because that was what they needed. Warriors would worship war deities, violent deities, bloodthirsty deities, etc. So what about the death deities? Well, the elites administering communities have the power over religion, and they are the ones who make the rules and administrate the social-religious cults. Linked to religion comes death of course, and all the cults, myths and ideias around death. People would only need to have contact with such deities, when a member of their community or family would die, or even themselves. But those whose affairs in society were constantly related with death, such as priests and priestesses, were the ones to worship the death deities.

As such, it is natural to see that the most famous deities are linked to death, because those are the deities worshiped by the elites of each ancient societies, therefore their representations and names come in all forms because only the wealthiest have the means to registrate, either in written form, in architecture and artefacts, the deities they worship.

That is why, till this day, we know more about death deities than any other deities; even if we only hear the name, we know it and we link it automatically with a deity, whilst other names of other deities are less familiar to us. So here is a tiny list of pagan death deities that you have certainly heard about:

Celtic

Cichol - Leader of the Formorians, a race of semi-divine creatures. A being who preceded the gods of Celtic lore. 

Mannanan - Technically a sea deity but is also associated with the veil between the living and afterlife.

Donn - Lord of the dead in Celtic lore.

Morrígan - Associated with battle, strife, and sovereignty. Most frequently seen on the battle-fields in a form of a crow or raven, seeking the dead.

There are many celtic deities associated with death, for the celts were a variety of peoples with similarities in their warrior-culture. They were constantly in conflict amongst themselves and with others, for the basis of their religious ideas was to achieve glory, honour and to become heroes, by their deeds in battle, the control of the art of war and their warrior skills.

Egyptian

Anubis - Guardian of the dead, mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion.

Osiris - Lord of the Underworld.

Nephthys - Anubis’ mother, and sister of Osiris, was also a guardian of the dead. She was believed to also escort dead souls to Osiris.

Seker - A falcon god of the Memphite necropolis who was known as a patron of the living, as well as a god of the dead. He is known to be closely tied to Osiris.

Greek

Hades - King of Underworld. (of course)

Persephone - Queen of the Underworld, wife of Hades and goddess of spring growth.

Hecate - Goddess of magic, night, moon, ghosts, necromancy and crossroads.

Thanatos - Spirit of death and mortality.

Macaria - Daughter of Hades, goddess of the blessed death.

Melinoe - Daughter of Persephone and Hades (or Zeus disguised as Hades), 
goddess of the restless undead, (ghosts etc.).

Angelos - A daughter of Zeus and Hera who became an underworld goddess.

Erebus - The primeval god of darkness, his mists encircled the underworld and filled the hollows of the earth

Keres - Goddesses of violent death, sisters of Thanatos.

Styx - Goddess of the river Styx (the river the dead have to cross), a river that formed a boundary between Earth and the Underworld. 

Erinyes - Chthonic deities of vengeance

Norse

Odin - God of many things, including death. 

Hel - Goddess of the dead, presides over a realm also called Hel or Helheim. 

Freyja - Goddess of fertility, magic and also death. Part of the fallen in battle don't go to Valhalla but to Fólkvangr, the Halls of Freyja.

The scandinavian cultures have a similarity with the celtic one. In the case of Odin, you might think that he is associated with magic and all the cult around that. In truth, Odin was the god of war and death, and not many people worshiped this deity; in fact, the cult of Odin was made by chieftains, specific priests and warriors. The cult of Odin was very violent, therefore not many people worshiped him. With the coming of christianity into scandinavian ground, the worship of the Norse pagan gods was prohibited, but since Odin had had a major importance in the warrior-society of old, his cult was maintained in hiding and he became almost the only old god to be worshiped. This is why all the witchcraft practices also became linked to him and the story of Freyja teaching him magic, spells and all those sort of things, was created. Odin was never a god of magic but a god or war and death.

Finnish

Tuoni - The god of the Tuonela (Underworld).

Roman

Dis Pater - God of the underworld

Mania - Goddess of death

Mors - Personification of death

Orcus - Punisher of broken oaths; usually folded in with Pluto

Pluto - Ruler of the underworld

In the case of the romans, the most famous deities are not linked with death but with the imperial cult. The cult of the emperor and his figure representing power, righteousness, divine love and law,  was much more important during the roman empire (obviously).

Slavic

Morena - Associated with seasonal rites based on the idea of death and rebirth of nature.

Chernobog - The name means "black god". It may be associated with death, although there isn't a very strong association with it or anything else. There are historical sources - christian ones - that interpret him as a malicious god. However, for the Slavs this deity may never had that connotation and wasn't seen as evil.

Peklenc - The lord of the underground and a divine judge.

Veles - Associated with water and the underworld.

Lusitanian and Celtiberian

Cariocecus - God of war and also associated with sacrifices, both of animals and people, which may also be linked to death.

Durius - The god of the river of that same name (nowadays called Douro). There were many river deities, and it is possible that they were linked to death due to the deposition of the peoples' ashes, after funeral rites, on important rivers, including offerings of weapons.

Trebaruna - Goddess associated with home, families, protection, battles, animal sacrifices and possibly death due to the two last associations.

Archaeology: A viking blacksmith

A thousand years ago, more or less, a norse blacksmith reached the end of his life-journey and at his funeral rites, his tools were buried with him. Now, archaeology found his burial place and the artefacts buried with him. The findings give us insight into the work and status of a blacksmith in the viking society of old.

The grave was composed of several layers. It seems, according to the archaeologists , that the placement of the artefacts in the grave signify a relative status. At the top it has been found the blacksmith tools. An axe was also found, along with a sword and some agricultural implements. Deeper down were the blacksmith’s personal items, including a razor, scissors (for trimming his beard, perhaps), tweezers, a frying pan and a poker. The grave contained about sixty artefacts. At the very bottom it was found the cremated remains of a human being – it was the blacksmith, of course. There were other personal items; some beads that had been attached to his clothing and a comb made of bone.

It may be possible that the blacksmith's contemporaries wished to show how skilful he was in his work by including such an extensive amount of objects; he might have forged many of these tools himself even. 

It is interesting to see that during the Viking Age, people still had great respect for blacksmiths. Tamers of fire, who could create objects controlling this wild and dangerous element, molding metal and making a perfect union between earth (the metals it gives), fire, and water and air (which are also needed while forging). The use of the four elements by one single person, and the control of those same elements; blacksmiths in old times must have been seen like some kind of sorcerers.

The joy of creating objects, by controlling the elements and using both strength and delicacy, must be a wonderful therapy.

Samhain: Remembering our ancestors

Halloween is at hand; this most-awaited celebration (including by myself) where scary beings are the order of the day. Funny and pleasant moments spent with family and friends, enjoying the very natural atmosphere this season provides us, along with the creepy and spine-chilling tales we tell each other by the fire and with the lights turn off. Well, I must say, with the exception of Yuletide, this is certainly my favorite time of the year. But this isn't, definitely, Samhain (as it has been named): the far older traditional festivity of our ancestors.

I know I have written about Samhain a few times before. Well, in fact, every year I write about it, and I think I have given the reason why before - I do love this time of the year.But I think it is always important to remember the origins of festivities and the importance those had to our ancestors; it is a way to honor them by remembering the spirit of this season, and in fact, this season literally belongs to them. Samhain, and every other similar European-Pagan celebration, marks the ending of the harvest season and the beginning of winter; not winter as we know it today, but the beginning of darkness, as in the days are shorter and the nights are longer.

This celebration has pre-christian roots. Its celebrations began at sunset on the thirty first (31st) of October, to the sunset of the first (1st) of November. It is one of the four most important seasonal celebrations of the year. Literally, the essence of this celebration marks the beginning of winter.

This time of the year was when the cattle could no longer graze on the green pastures,summer was waning (note that Autumn wasn't known to be a season and there was only Spring, Summer and Winter) and farm animals were slaughtered and the surpluses of the harvest were stored for the coming of winter. Storing food for winter was the key for survival. Nowadays we do not give much importance to that and that is why part of the spirit of this season was forgotten. Samhain was also a liminal time when the spirits or fairies could easily cross into our world. Take note that when I speak of fairies I'm not referring to the little shiny creatures with wings, but to the term for all kinds of spirits, just like in the Scandinavian tradition, that Elves aren't only the good-looking handsome beings with pointy ears, it also includes all kinds of spiritual beings (mostly benevolent). Most of this spiritual beings may be the remnants of older pagan deities and spirits of nature, as such, people used to leave offerings of food and drink out in the fields for them. This, of course, was because people wanted to maintain the bonds of friendship with the spirits and the gods, and avoid all kinds of mischiefs from them. Also, it was a way to ensure that the spirits of nature were appeased and winter wouldn't be so harsh on mortals.

These practices during Samhain are very evident in our modern celebration of Halloween. However, most of these supernatural elements in this celebration now have a wicked or/and an evil aspect, due to their condemnation by the medieval church. To put on a costume was another part of the festival and involved people going door-to-door in disguise to recite verses in exchange for food - Halloween trick or treating recalls this tradition.

However, nowadays there isn't an important aspect of Samhain reflected on our Halloween. This aspect is obviously the honouring of out ancestors. As mentioned before, if the spirits of nature and deities can come through the tin veil, so the dead can as well, for they also belong to the otherworldly activities. People used to held feasts and invited their deceased ancestors to attend those same feasts. This was in fact the true reason this celebration was held, with roots in our prehistoric past. As you might know, Agriculture is as "recent" as 5000 years ago (in some "countries" - the farthest away from the middle-east the earlier to our era it gets). There are archaeological evidences that this celebration was held before the invention of agriculture. In ancient times, Samhain wasn't the celebration of a season and the ending of the harvest, because there wasn't any harvest to be celebrated.

The Coligny calendar (a Celtic time keeping plaque found in France and probably dating to the late 2nd century AD) with celtic words but written in Roman alphabet, is assumed to reflect a far older indigenous tradition of this celebration. The year (as with the Gaelic Celtic year) was divided into two with the division from summer to winter occurring at Samon[ios], which may have given rise to the word ‘Samhain’. It seems there was a three-night festival at this time (Iron Age people recorded times by nights not days), called the trinux[tion] samo[nii] - the three nights of Samhain. What people did at this time of year is hard to discern from the archaeological evidences.

Now, I think it might be relevant what I will transcribe from Mike Williams:

" (...) from the Bronze Age, and possibly long before, people observed the movement of the stars and an embossed disc from Nebra in Germany seems to reflect the celestial skies at the start of winter. The disc shows the moon (...) and a star constellation that looks very similar to the Pleiades. Given its prominence, the Pleiades certainly had considerable meaning to the people using the disc.(...)

" In Western astrology, the Pleiades is associated with mourning the dead (...) as with all stars, the Pleiades has shifted its position over the years. During the Iron Age, the Pleiades rose to its apex in the winter skies during trinuxtion samonii, or the three nights of Samhain. (...) Iron Age people mourned and remembered their dead at this time, then it may have given rise to the association between the Pleiades and mourning the dead. The Nebra disc shows the importance of the constellation to prehistoric people and it may have even been the marker people sought to begin their festivities. There is even folk tradition that Druids celebrated Samhain when the Pleiades were at their apex at midnight. Mourning and remembering the dead may have been the focus of the Samahin festival during the Iron Age. "

Unfortunately, Halloween forgot all about honouring our ancestors, and we seem to enjoy more what it has become. However, during the IX (9th) century, the roman catholic church changed their "All Saints' Day" to the 1st of November. It became the day for remembering the dead, the ancestors. It might seem strange to you to notice that the church, who so fervently fought against pagans in order to make people forget and forsake their ancestral traditions and impose and implement their believes, kept this element of Samhain. In truth, it was a very cunning "marketing" weapon to "collect" more worshipers of the new faith into their flock. The church knew it was a very important celebration and people sticked to it, and it would be very hard to lead them astray from their important ancestral celebrations so rooted in their hearts, so the church just included it in the new faith and both parts were "happy" with it. Recognizing and adopting Samhain as a christian celebration was a way to appease the mood of the pagans and turn them into allies.

Never forget your roots, your origins. You will certainly have time to remember your ancestors this Halloween. Enjoy the feasts, the celebrations, trick or treat and all that stuff, but don't forget your ancestors and honour them as best you may.