Friday, July 24, 2009

From Discovery News: Altar to Mysterious Deity Found at Roman Fort Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News July 24, 2009 -- A massive altar dedicated to an eastern cult deity has emerged during excavations of a Roman fort in northern England. Weighing 1.5 tons, the four-foot high ornately carved stone relic, was unearthed at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, which was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian between 122-30 A.D. The Romans built the defensive wall across the north of Britain from Carlisle to Newcastle-on-Tyne, to keep out invading armies from what is now Scotland. "What should have been part of the rampart mound near to the north gate of the fort has turned out to be an amazing religious shrine," said archaeologist Andrew Birley. A jar and a shallow dish is depicted on one side of the altar, while the other side shows a god-like figure standing on the back of a bull, with a thunderbolt in one hand and a battle axe in the other. Romans called this god Juppiter Dolichenus, but it was originally an ancient weather god, known to the Semitic peoples of the Middle East as Hadad and to the Hittites as Teshab. It was in its war-like representation that the Anatolian god Juppiter of Doliche became a favorite deity among Roman soldiers. Indeed, an inscription indicates that the altar was dedicated to the Dolichenus god by "Sulpicius Pudens, prefect of the Fourth Cohort of Gauls." According to Birley, Sulpicius Pudens was the commanding officer of the Roman regiment based at Vindolanda in the Third century and he may have dedicated the expensive stone to the god in thanks for fulfilling a vow. This was a normal practice, as partial inscriptions from badly damaged Dolichenus shrines, all found in England, testify. "The Vindolanda shrine is unique as it is situated within the walls of the fort, something which has yet to be encountered elsewhere. This casts new light on ritual spaces inside Roman forts," Birley told Discovery News. Originally worshiped as a weather god on a hilltop close to the small town of Doliche (what is now the modern city of Duluk in southern Turkey) Juppiter of Doliche began attracting Roman worshipers by the early second century AD. From then on, the cult of Dolichenus took off and spread all over the Roman empire. According to Anthony Birley, chairman of the Vindolanda Trust and the author of many books on ancient Roman history, the discovery is important because "there are absolutely no literary references to Dolichenus, so all that we know about the religion is based on some 300 surviving inscriptions and sculptures from different parts of the Roman Empire." The shrine at Vindolanda includes a small feasting room and reveals evidence of animal sacrifice. "Since the worship of Dolichenus is not exclusively military, it is quite possible that all members of the military community, including non-combatants, may have worshiped at the shrine/temple and enjoyed the feasts held there," the archaeologist said. As for the success of the walled fort -- it's uncertain how long it may have held off advancing enemies since conflicts in the rest of Europe eventually drew the Romans away from this northern-most reach of the Empire. The altar stone is one of thousands of artifacts found from excavations at the fort and a settlement at Vindolanda. Home to Romans from 85 A.D. until about 410 A.D., the fort has revealed the largest early archive of Latin documents (over 1,500 documents known as "Vindolanda tablets") related to military movements. Other finds include letters home by Roman soldiers, written in ink on wood, asking for warm clothing and socks. While the excavation continues until mid-September, the archaeologists estimate that it could take more than a decade of work before Vindolanda reveals all of its treasures.
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This is a very ancient god. Here is some information on him from the online Encyclopedia Britannica: Teshub In the religions of Asian Minor, the Hurrian deity in the the Hurrian weather god, assimilated by the Hittites to their own weather god, Tarhun. Several myths about Teshub survive in Hittite versions. One, called the “Theogony,” relates that Teshub achieved supremacy in the pantheon after the gods Alalu, Anu, and Kumarbi had successively been deposed and banished to the netherworld. Another myth, the “Song of Ullikummi,” describes the struggle between Teshub and a stone monster that grew out of the sea. Teshub’s consort was Hebat (Queen of Heaven), and they had a son, Sharruma. In art, unless identified by name or associated with Hebat, Teshub is often indistinguishable from the Hittite Tarhun. At the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya near the ancient Hittite capital, the leading god is named Teshub and is represented treading on the bowed necks of two mountain gods. In other representations he is shown as a standing figure carrying a lituus (a long crook) or driving a chariot drawn by bulls. He reappears in the Kingdom of Urartu as Tesheba, one of the chief gods, and in Urartian art he is depicted standing on a bull. From Wikipedia - which adds an interesting note about the possible antiquity of goddess Arinna: Teshub (also written Teshup) was the Hurrian god of sky and storm. He was derived from the Hattian Taru. His Hittite and Luwian name was Tarhun (with variant stem forms Tarhunt, Tarhuwant, Tarhunta). He is depicted holding a triple thunderbolt and a weapon, usually an axe (often double-headed) or mace. The sacred bull common throughout Anatolia was his signature animal, represented by his horned crown or by his steeds Seri and Hurri, who drew his chariot or carried him on their backs. In the Hurrian schema, he was paired with Hebat the mother goddess; in the Hittite, with the sun goddess of Arinna—a cultus of great antiquity which may ultimately derive from the bull god and mother goddess worshipped at Çatalhöyük in the Neolithic era. Myths also exist of his conflict with the sea creature (possibly a snake or serpent) Hedammu (CTH 348). His son was Sarruma. According to Hittite myth, one of his greatest acts was the slaying of the dragon Illuyanka. The Hurrian myth of Teshub's origin—he was conceived when the god Kumarbi bit off and swallowed his father Anu's genitals—is a likely inspiration for the story of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, which is recounted in Hesiod's Theogony.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

...hello, jan/yani(N)=pilgrim.
is not this weather god, teshub=
tetzupa(N)=the surf, the soup,
and, tarhun(hittite)= t/tlal/hun
(letra)=tlaloc(N)=raingod(rarog),
is he not, mithra=mitl(N)=spear
(missile/smith), adored of the
roman legions also associated with
the bull? so teshub, the surfer, who brings the end, tzopa/tzupi(N)=
to end, squeeze, build with stone, of dry season and begins a new
growing cycle, this tarhun/tlaloc
riding on the back of a bull, bolt in hand, represents a split from tlaloc, the oldest raingod, whose
animal was and is, mazatl(N)=deer,
in tonalamatl/souls, tlaloa(N)=
flee=talullah venison, tlaloa is
tlaloc's verb, and you've got it right, it must come from çatal
huyuk and her toloa(N)=bow the head, tol/roa(letra)=toros(sp).
teshub and tarhun and mithra's
animal must have come from there,
for by 7k bc, the 50k-22k bc deer
nomadism was over in turkey, more
climate than cultural change, as
deer needs the wet tlaloc, and 4k
before çatal, gobekli, which dates
biblical eden, and it too went
to wheat=uitequi(N)=thresh.

Jan said...

Hola Carlos!

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.

You have pointed to the importance of HORNS: deer have horns (we call them "racks" in English); bulls have horns. It is, perhaps, no coincidence that a type of deer horn was discovered in a very ancient grave site in Iran -- I will have to find the post I did on that. That "wishbone" shaped horn was associated with an Iranian Goddess, and thus speaks to her extreme antiquity.

The crescent moon, associated with many different goddesses, is also associated with the curve of a bull's horn. This dates back to Catal Hoyuk, and most likely beyond.

This is rather chopped up - I'm trying to do 10 different things at once. This quote caught my eye from my original post:

"The Hurrian myth of Teshub's origin—he was conceived when the god Kumarbi bit off and swallowed his father Anu's genitals—is a likely inspiration for the story of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, which is recounted in Hesiod's Theogony."

Hmmm. We know that gods and goddesses can do anything they wish, but usually male gods do not give birth! If they do, suspect what my friend Isis calls "the old switcheroo." History has taught us that many times the legends and myths of very old peoples have been appropriated by others and the sexes of the goddesses were changed to gods, to suit the thinking of the times.

I think it likely that the Hurrian myth was garbled over the ages, and it relates back to a very very old time - Catal Hoyuk and even older. It seems to me, therefore, more likely, that the "god" KUMARBI was actually the goddess KUMARI, and she conceived and then sacrificed her husband/father after he had done his duty (impregnating his daughter/wife, thereby assuring succession of the line and another sacrifice to the Goddess in due course). These old mythis contain the origins of King Sacrifice and the seeds of chess.

Another thought - this legend sounds very similar to the very old basic Egyptian myth of Osiris/Isis/Set: Osiris = Teshub. Iconography throughout the ancient Middle East kingdoms as well as Egyptian art display the classic stand of the striding warrior "king" with battle ax or battle club raised, ready to smite an enemy to his death.

His mate, the "Queen of Heaven", in Egypt was Isis, the Greek name for Aset. In Sumer she was Inanna. To the Hittites, she was Astarte. To the Hebrews and Canaanites, she was Ashtoreth or Ashtoroth.

The serpent role was appropriated by Set in the Egyptian pantheon, but there are hints of an older tradition that pre-dates the first Dynasty - that of Mehen, the Egyptian goddess (later called a god) Mother Protector of Pharaoh. The iconography of that old tradition survived although the legends associated with it changed during the ages. The serpent goddess and the vulture goddess were protectors of the Pharaoh, and were incorporated into the crown of the united "two lands" of Upper and Lower Egypt sometime between 3400 and 3000 BCE.

But the myths and legends go back much further - to that time of wetness to which you referred - before Egypt became desertified.

Unknown said...

...mehen, later male, early protector of pharoah is metl/
metis, mother of athena by zeus
in parthenogenic act by drinking
a glass of metis, either nequatl(N)=nectar, or, poliuqui/N(/pulque,
this is the earlier myth of
atena's birth, which hides her mother as the amerindian rope goddess, an entire age missed by
history.
apparently we are all deer culture peoples, our religions
today get their words, seven,
serve, venerate, divine, from the
cult, and the words, noma/nomatca/
nomatzinco(N)=nomad(E) means still,
the same, spontaneous, forever,
all these words the definition of
religion as we would have it even today. the berber masyes are deer, leaving europe 50k bc according
to their haplo group(cf., matilda
gobekli origin of, our word meat is
from the deer, russian also, hebrew
of course, mazeltov=mazatl toptli(N)= deer, idol. deer/deor/teotl is
the raingod's animal, tlaloc(and
rarog), when it gets drier, the
berber/masyes=mazatl yectli(N)=
deer-yes switch to sheep, and therin lies, ouica(N)=danger, with
difficulty=oveja(sp), for we take
a god that does not connect to heaven, xipeua(N)=to flay=sheep,
and from there we are a step away from the disastrous religions of today, who treat us like flock
and set wolves upon us or are
wolves themselves. we were better off with deer, the ascendant tlaloc, his verb, tlaloa(N)= to flee=talullah, the spaniard and
english name apples and cherrys
after mazatl=mazaxocotl(N)=
mazard(E), ma(n)za(na)(letra)=
manzana(sp)=apple, city block.
the nomad period of religion began 50k bc in response to euro-
glaciation and we reached the altai then euro.origin tribes came back when glaciers receded.
the omotic corridor in ethopia
are languages that use nauatl
particles in all their vocabulary,
e.g., the ometo word for sheep=
mara=mar/l/tlatl(letra)=matlatl(N)=net, word assoc. with, mare(E) mazatl/maze. rack(E)=r/l/tlaca(N)=
body. the horns connected the deer
to tlaloc, his bolts of lightning,
which also through pressure flaking produced better arrow bolts. the horse replaces the deer, actually the nenetz tamed
the moose before the reindeer, or
the horse lives beside the deer, and in dry climate as said the
sheep comes in to change the concept of religion and emphasizes the helplessness that later becomes christ. out of the altaic
culture of deer i am sure came the
jose(jap)=vaudeville of the story
of, yo ce(N)=josé=i alone, which
is played millenia later by christ. i sent matilda a long garbled screed on this, which she
did not publish as is her perogative, but if she still has
it she may lend it to you or not,
up to her.

Jan said...

Carlos, Some prior information on deer connection with shamanism http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412185:

The so-called Sorcerer is a 15,000 year old Upper Palaeolithic painting in the Trois Freres cave in the French Pyrenees. It appears to show a shaman transforming into an animal. He is wearing a stag antler headdress and his feet appear to be furry and clawed. Then look at the antler headdresses found at Star Carr in Yorkshire - notice the holes bored to make it possible to tie them on. That site is Maglemosian from the Mesolithic - about 10,000 bp.

Information about the statue of a goddess, red deer remains and other animal remains found at Sheikhi Abad mound in Iran's Kermanshah Province: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=68642&sectionid=351020105

The article identifies a photograph of what appear to be a pair of deer horns as the "goddess statue" but I think it is miscaptioned. Although the article does not say, my guess is that perhaps a small sanctuary was uncovered where animal sacrifices were made to the unnamed goddess, who is not shown. However, dondelion thinks the deer horns ARE the statue of the goddess. The site dates to 9,000-10,000 years ago, but there was no indication how old these finds might be.

(Also related to the deer/horn information you posted under "The Scorpion Goddess."

Unknown said...

...xamani(N)=to destroy, chamaua(N)=to praise, exalt. since the deer
culture, the stag=tlaca(N)=rack has been used to ask for rain and lightning,
dual elements of tlaloc to whom
the shaman would appeal. tarhun
includes a solar particle, -hun=
h/th/tun/tonatiuh. there is a sun
of tlaloc, one of the 5 ages, called, tlaltonatiuh=t/lar/l h/th/tun/tona(letra)=tarhun, which
began during wet deer culture at
50k bc and before, during and after gobekli, 11k bc, became
dry deer culture when horned and
bolted rain shamans arose, we were
in the caves a long time, 15k bc,
after that an explosion in taming
horse, sheep, in response to
climate and the talullah tlaloa(N)=
fleeing of the tlaloc animal, all
happened pretty fast after gobekli/
eden. oh, mehen= metl tentli(N)=
the maguey metis lip, methe(gk)=
drink, meth(hindi)=strength, then
the honey words, mëd(rus)miel(sp),
as said in previous post the tentli
(N)=atena=athena myth predates thigh-sewing. ah, komarbi, looks
like a nomad tlapa(N)=earth paint/
lapp(reindeer)/aplu(etr)=apollo,
sungod word to me, komara also,
the nomad life was concerned, like
the egyptian scarab/karabos(gk)/
caribou setting sun funerary myth,
having to do with, a parthenogenesis
earlier than the metl/metis/zeus/
athena, out of which atena probably
came, the caine/abel/aplu story in
the bible reflects the same myth,
the sun must die for cain/in ca(N/peru)to continue, a time joke. koma(r)bi=co(m)-abi=api=ap(l)u=
apollo. i place the aplu etruscans
in turkey then in the altai, or
getting iron from there. so,
komarbi is solar, and komara=
mara=mar/l/tla=matlatl(N)=the net
word assoc. with deer culture,
the turks having their origin in the altai mts.
i would agree with don, the
rack/horns are intentional, when
one thinks of karabos(gk)=
quaxicalli(N)=head gourd, i.e.,
a rack/tlaca belongs on the head,
and at lagar velho burial, there
are no antlers i believe, but the
pelvis of red deer herself, what
we have is the beginning of weather forecasting here.

Jan said...

Hi Carlos!

You said (in part) komara=
mara=mar/l/tla=matlatl(N)=the net
word assoc. with deer culture,
the turks having their origin in the altai mts.

Yes - I went back through earlier posts and discovered one about a wall painting that shows a deer caught in a net: http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2008/03/further-information-on-peruvian.html.

Evidently a very old tradition. Your "tlatl" was right again.

You also said: i would agree with don, the
rack/horns are intentional, when
one thinks of karabos(gk)=
quaxicalli(N)=head gourd, i.e.,
a rack/tlaca belongs on the head,
and at lagar velho burial, there
are no antlers i believe, but the
pelvis of red deer herself, what
we have is the beginning of weather forecasting here.

The red deer's PELVIS? Isn't the picture shown much too small to be a deer's pelvis? Well, I guess I'm thinking of a rather large animal. Just what does a red deer's pelvis look like?

Show us the goods, Carlos!

Unknown said...

...in the lagar velho child burial,
the body is bracketed by the left side of a red deer pelvis, part at the head and the other at the foot.
on the ankle are 8/ocho/tochtli(N/
day8souls)=rabbit bones. the child wore a knit cap, long since decayed but had 4 red deer teeth
where it should have been, 4=
cenauatitiuh(N)=final good-bye.
this was the burial in which eric trinkhaus had a big snarly with the
brits, details are strangely lacking on the net, my source
was archeology magazine. erik
claims that it's an example of neander/cromag cross, if one agrees
with him then neander is part of deer culture, our true prometheus,
for language as well, in short,
an entire debit side for the newer
species out of afrika, gods included, e.g., yahweh=ya ue(N)=
already big, or, ocelome(N)=
(oc)elohim(Heb). i am on the
trinkhaus side. i don't believe
we have a language capability
that could have originated the
incredible language system we have,
as it is the product of millenia
of careful not careless observation, and another reason
neander was called the fallen angel, as it does come from the
godlike patience and intelligence
even the bible assigns to deity.
but we are an arrogant species,
who does not manage well, thinking
god is in the details when deity
is in big and small, oddly, the same amount both cases, like the
constant velocity of sunbeam.
i guess it all comes down to
saying whether neander, who
preceded us in the batter's box,
connected and got a hit, maybe
a homerun(he survived 4 times longer
than we have to this date)or did
he strike out. scientists, now
our racial defenders say, he struck
out. i have more faith in hominid
species that that, he/she may have
lived in small groups, but the
promethean legend doesn't go away,
it whispers through the pages of
our history, a history noted for
revisions, gaps, and outright lies.

Unknown said...

...i opt for a chinese silk road origin for chess based on examination of mongolian terms
for the game(call me an idiot if you like), but let's see the words:
noyon(M)=king=nouian(N)=universal,
par tout(Fr). nouian ixquich(N)=
squared, the queen shares the same
root name, with the addition of,
nohoi(M)=guard dog(on all 4 sides).
the dog ia a wind animal in souls,
and that cuadrant's regent=ehecatl/
hecate, wind and weaving goddess,
who becomes, quaxolotl chantico/
dogshead by the hearth.
other words for queen=merze(M)=
mastiff=meztli(N)=leg, limb, the
moon goddess(the king, universal,
would be the sun). wu tu(561-578),
chinese emperor played the elephant/ollin pantli(N)=holy family/image game in which pieces were the sun, moon, stars, constellations(ehecatl/hecate=
planet venus, originally the deer,
our first haberdasher and donner
and blitzen blinger). tic tack toe
3x3 also related here. oh, the
9x9 chess board refers to the
land of the dead, chiconaupan(N)=
9crossings, the god of games,
macui xochitl/5flower tobacco god
(a pre-agriculture plant) is god of
games, and his double, xolotl,
the eveningstar escorts the sun,
the king, through the 9crossings,
everyday, he is the son of ehecatl/
venus. so, we see an infernal theme
for games, a journey, used to while
away the evening hours of travel
and keep the mind engaged on the
trip that leads all into darkness.
another word for queen=arslan(M)=lion=ar(l/tl(r)an(letra)=atlan(N)=
atl(N)=water,brain,war=atltatl(N)=
throwing stick. no atl/nauh(N)=
kno-ow(E)=nous(gk)=mind=mati(N)=
know=mate(E), etc.
the rook=tereg(M)=cart=tetleco-tiliztli(N)=draw a line, limit of
a game, complete rupture with
someone.
and the pawn=hu(M)=boy/puppy=
h/ph/poyaua(N)=to color, illume/
poyauac(N)=colored,obscure/
poyaui(N)=to break up(clouds),
to clear(like the pawn formation).
it's my instinct, or spider
sense from working at this level
with words, myth, and bare fact,
that the gym for chess, where it
worked out, was the silk road
where it was needed as a pasatiempo/pastime, moving along
with goods, gold and siver, that
brought us the star-bangled consumer societys we have today.
and it is along that route we will
find the oldest pieces used for
the tuning/toning of men's minds.

Unknown said...

...jan, let me give my full attention to kumarbi=kumarwe
-bi=-ue(N)=big(way/buey). the
latter spelling from the hurrian
texts of mari and hattusas. ah,
kumaru(akkadian)=heap up, pile up, throw down. no cities of that name
are found, e.g., kamru(thutmose list, n.syria)=house=chantli(N)=
house=chamitl(N)=brick=chaminaua(N)=chimney, so that's not it, found
on google:kumara/kumarbi:semitic
element.../www.jstor, first page.
the nauatl for kumarwe/ue=
comal/r w/ue(letra)=comalli ue(N)=
big/ue comalli/comal=flat cooking
pan for tortillas still made of
fired pottery, i have one as large
as a steerng wheel.
so, kumar/l(i)we/ue is the cooking pan if we take the akkadian, kumaru, to mean the preparation of flat bread,
which has to be piled up and
thrown down on the comalli
used for tortillas. since
the comal is big it refers to a
similar time as egyptian baking of bread for their construction gangs
in round pots, the mark of building citys,temples, and fortifications, but comalli is
the dawn of such endeavors.
the rest of the nauatl wordstring=comaltia(N)=cook/
comaltlilli(N)=potblack,soot
(the writing material), also
there's ixtlilton(N)=little black
face, the children's doctor, and,
to give an idea of comarwe/
comall(i)ue's character we
include commatini(N)=delicate, susceptible, irritated(easily heated),delicate,sensitive. all words that fit cooks and the clay comalli, but from the rootstock,
mati(N)=to know,=mater(Lat)=
mother.
finally, comall(i)ue is the
cooking mother fire goddess,
related to comoni(N)=start the
breakfast fire(commotion=the
fire drill), which i have assigned
to chronus, the youngest titan=
titlani(N)=messenger promethean.
the -bi particle can also be
-xi(shi)=xiuhtecuhtli/xiuhtletl(N),
t/l/red/t/l, the firegod, lord
turquoise, lord of time, herbs,
who would properly be her husband,
also known as ueueteotl(N)=the old
god. yes, comalliue,the old fire
goddess.
we can strike the solar label for her, but not forget that solar
comes from the hub of fire.

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