Is This the Oldest Depiction of the Virgin Mary?

The Virgin Mary/Maria is a Christian incarnation of the ancient Mother Goddess, She who has gone by various names throughout written and unwritten history: Mariah/Maya/Mari/Mare/Amaya/Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna/Isis/Hathor/Mut, etc.

The myth of a virgin giving birth to a "god" or demi-god through an "incarnation" is nothing new -- having shown up throughout the ages in various forms and cultures around the world (not just the Middle East). What I find most fascinating about this article is the association of the ancient Mother Goddess with water symbolism which means, essentially, She is the giver and sustainer of life itself.  No water - no life. Thus, she is feared above all others because she controls life itself, and her representatives on Earth -- females -- are feared above all else by the males of all species, and by male homo sapiens sapiens most of all.

Article at The New York Times:

Is This the Oldest Image of the Virgin Mary?

By MICHAEL PEPPARD

JAN. 30, 2016

THE Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the most revered woman in the Christian tradition. In the history of art, she appears almost as frequently as Jesus himself. But for the past 80 years, one of the oldest paintings of her may have been hiding in plain sight.

At the Yale University Art Gallery hang wall paintings from one of the world’s oldest churches. Buried by the middle of the third century, this house-church from eastern Syria had images of Jesus, Peter and David. The gallery showcases a well-preserved procession of veiled women that once surrounded its baptistery, a room for Christian initiation.

Off to the side, seldom noticed among the likes of Jesus and Peter, stands a different wall fragment, faded but still discernible: a woman bent over a well. Holding the rope of her vessel, she looks out at the viewer or perhaps over her shoulder, seemingly startled in the act of drawing water.

A detail of the baptistery painting from Deir ez-Zor, Syria, that may portray the Virgin Mary.CreditTony De Camillo/Yale University Art Gallery

Who is she? The museum’s identification is certainly plausible: “The painting most likely depicts a scene from the encounter between Christ (not shown) and a woman from Samaria,” as recorded in the Gospel of John.

But historians also know that the Samaritan Woman, a repentant sinner who conversed at length with Jesus, was usually depicted in dialogue with him. This woman appears to be alone. Is it possible that a painting from a building excavated in 1932 and publicized around the world has not been correctly identified?

These murals come from the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, a military outpost variously called “Dura” or “Europos” in antiquity. Perched high above the Euphrates in the region that is now called Deir ez-Zor, the ruins of Dura-Europos have yielded more distinct artifacts than almost any other ancient archaeological site: an intact Roman shield, a lavishly painted synagogue, a temple to the gods of nearby Palmyra. It is the “Pompeii of the Syrian desert,” declared Michael Rostovtzeff, director of Yale’s excavations at the site.

 But no Vesuvius buried this Pompeii. Portions of Dura-Europos were buried intentionally, to bolster a rampart against a Sasanian army invading from the east in the 250s. The misfortune of the Roman garrison, which lost the battle, would become good fortune for historians. The earthen rampart sealed cross-sections of many buildings, including the house-church, so that both contents and date were secure.

The church’s painted baptistery remains a unique discovery. Outside of funerary contexts, such as the catacombs in Rome, there are precious few Christian paintings from before Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the fourth century. These also offer a glimpse into the beliefs and rituals of Syrian Christians, a community currently in peril.

While the Samaritan Woman at the Well was a respected biblical figure for early Christians, there was actually a more prominent “woman at the well” in Syria: the Virgin Mary during the Annunciation, when an angelic visitor informed her of her miraculous pregnancy. Where does this episode take place? The setting of the canonical account, in the Gospel of Luke, is not specified. But the second-century biography of Mary’s early life, usually called the Protevangelium of James, describes how one day, during a break from her work, “she took the pitcher and went forth to draw water, and behold, a voice said: ‘Hail, you are highly favored, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.’ And she looked around on the right and on the left to see from where this voice could have come.”

During this first encounter, at a well or spring, the angel was heard but not seen. Mary appeared to be alone. Most people, when they imagine the Annunciation, have in mind some western Renaissance masterpiece: a studious, cloistered Mary welcoming the angel from the comfort of home. But Byzantine images of the scene, though coming centuries later than the figure from Dura-Europos, bear an arresting formal resemblance to it.

An annunciation scene from a Byzantine 12th-century illuminated manuscript.CreditBibliothèque Nationale de France

The brilliant illumination in James of Kokkinobaphos’s “Homilies on the Virgin” and the grand mosaic from the Byzantine monastery at Chora in Istanbul both demonstrate the importance in eastern Christianity of placing Mary at the well.

Some manuscripts even depict this type among illuminations of the Gospel of Luke itself, showing that artists preferred the evocative iconographic traditions of the noncanonical text over the unspecified setting of the canonical one. At Chora, Mary’s figure can also be contrasted with the portrayal of the Samaritan Woman in the same church, who looks across a well at a pictured Jesus.

The woman at Dura-Europos has yet more secrets to reveal. Archival photographs and drawings made by the archaeologists on site show that the supposed absence behind the female figure is not totally silent — it speaks a couple of lines. That is to say, a field sketch of the wall done “to show additional details” depicts two painted lines touching the woman’s back, along with a kind of starburst on the front of her torso, features described as “unexplained” in the archaeological report. But with the new interpretation of the figure, in connection with the Eastern iconography that came later, the lines invite a rather evident meaning. They appear to represent a motion toward the woman’s body and a spark of activity within it, as if something invisible were approaching and entering her — an incarnation. If correct, this woman at a well is the oldest securely datable image of the Virgin Mary. [Ed. Note: Absolutely major!  There will be vehement scholarly protests, let's see if they trickle down into The NYT in future editions!]

Devotees of the Roman catacombs may demur, since a few female figures there are often presented as Mary. But these are challenging to date with certainty, and many scholars argue that the proposed examples have insufficiently specific iconographic signifiers.

Identifying the oldest image of Mary isn’t an end in itself. Re-identifying this woman helps us to ponder anew the distinctive emphases of early Christians in Syria, who in this baptistery celebrated salvation through images of marriage, pregnancy and birth — as much or more than through participation in a ritualized death [the symbolic eating of the corpse and drinking of its blood]. This is not to undermine the power of Jesus’ passion and resurrection accounts, but rather to rebalance the perspective of modern Western viewers, looking back after centuries of art focused on the cross. In the extant art from Dura-Europos, we see the hope of new spiritual birth, but the death of Christ is not pictured once.

Today the paintings from this church are safe. But further opportunities to understand early Syrian Christianity are slipping away, as the archaeological sites of Deir ez-Zor are being systematically plundered under the auspices of the Islamic State. According to satellite images and reports from the ground, the looting pits at Dura-Europos are innumerable. Even while the human tragedy of the refugee crisis justifiably occupies our attention, the destruction of cultural heritage tells a parallel narrative. Images from this ancient Syrian church are thus much more than museum pieces. They illuminate a people and heritage that need salvation — and not the kind of salvation found in a baptistery. [Ed. Note: And thus damn good reason to NEVER REPATRIOT ANY ARTIFACT THE WEST HAS REMOVED from the Middle East or elsewhere.  There are ISIR/Daesh lurking around every corner, every era.]

Michael Peppard is an associate professor of theology at Fordham University and the author, most recently, of “The World’s Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria.”

How Did They Get Into The Well???

Bloomberg News

Murder Mystery Surrounds Skeletons in Ancient Israel Well

By Alisa Odenheimer on November 08, 2012

 

Archaeologists are facing a possible murder mystery after discovering two 8,500-year-old human skeletons at the bottom of a rare Stone-Age well used by the first farmers in Israel’s Jezreel Valley.

The skeletal remains belonged to a woman aged about 19 and an older man, according to archaeologists who announced the discovery today in an e-mailed release. The well dates back to the Neolithic period, they said.

 

“How did they come to be in the well?” the Israel Antiquities Authority asked in the statement. “Was this an accident or perhaps a murder? As of now, the answer to this question remains a mystery.”

 

The excavation of ancient wells is critical to understanding the culture and economy of a period before the invention of pottery vessels and metallic objects, Omri Barzilai, head of the Prehistory Branch of the IAA, said.

 

The two oldest wells in the world were uncovered in Cyprus, and are about 1,000 years older than this one, according to the IAA. The Jezreel Valley well is the second from its period discovered in Israel, it said.

 

“The impressive well was connected to an ancient farming settlement, and it seems the inhabitants used it for their subsistence and living,” Yotam Tepper, the site’s excavation director said. “After these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used, for the simple reason that the water was contaminated.”

Sickle Blades

Objects found inside the well include flint sickle blades used for harvesting, arrowheads and stone tools, he said.

 

The well shows the quarrying ability of the site’s ancient inhabitants and the knowledge they had of local hydrology and geology, which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table, Tepper said.

 

“No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that took a long time,” he said.

 

The well, which was uncovered in excavations before the enlarging of a highway by the National Roads Company, will be conserved and exhibited.

 

***********************************************************

I think the man and the woman were sacrifices, therefore, not precisely murder as we define it today in the Western world.  The clue, or should I say clues, are the presence of flint sicle blades, arrowheads and stone tools found INSIDE THE WELL.  It took a lot of effort to make these tools and implements back in the Stone Age, and one did not just casually toss them into the neighborhood well for the heck of it!   One did not casually toss people into wells either.  As the article noted, their bodies would have contaminated the water.  Now, if the locals didn't KNOW that would be the result from throwing a couple of people into their water source, perhaps many of them died from drinking contaminated water after the fact.  Did they have another water source?  Did they move away and this was a final propitiating sacrifice to the Goddess of the Well or the Goddess of the Waters?  Wonder what future excavation will reveal...

Ruins of Sacred Lake Found at Tanis

From ABC News: Pharaonic-Era Sacred Lake Unearthed in Egypt October 15, 2009 CAIRO (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed the site of a pharaonic-era sacred lake in a temple to the Egyptian goddess Mut in the ruins of ancient Tanis, the Culture Ministry said on Thursday. The ministry said the lake, found 12 meters below ground at the San al-Hagar archaeological site in Egypt's eastern Nile Delta, was 15 meters long and 12 meters wide and built out of limestone blocks. It was in a good condition. It was the second sacred lake found at Tanis, which became the northern capital of ancient Egypt in the 21st pharaonic dynasty, over 3,000 years ago. The first lake at the site was found in 1928, the ministry said. The goddess Mut, sometimes depicted as a vulture, was the wife of Amun, god of wind and the breath of life. She was also mother of the moon god Khonsu. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston; editing by Philippa Fletcher) Copyright 2009 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sacred Mayan Pools to Be Explored

About time! Well, actually, I know that funding is a perennial problem for archaeological projects and particularly digs like this, in Central and South America. Seems people just aren't that interested. I suggest, though, that everone pay attention to local stories and legends about sacred water - whether pools, rivers, lakes, streams or tiny trickles of water out of a cave or rock face. These are often places of the Goddess. Story from UPI.com Scientists to Explore Sacred Mayan Pools Published: Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A University of Illinois archaeologist says she will lead a team that will be the first to explore the sacred pools of the southern Mayan lowlands in Belize. Professor Lisa Lucero said she will lead a team of expert divers, a geochemist and an archaeologist in the expedition, funded by the National Geographic Society, to investigate the cultural significance and environmental history and condition of three of the 23 pools of Cara Blanca, in central Belize. The groundwater-filled sinkholes in limestone bedrock, called cenotes, were treated as sacred sites by the Maya, Lucero said. The cenotes vary in depth from approximately 15 feet to more than 165 feet. "Any openings in the earth were considered portals to the underworld, into which the ancient Maya left offerings," she said. "We know from ethnographic accounts that Maya collected sacred water from these sacred places, mostly from caves," Lucero said, noting the Maya also left elaborate offerings in the lakes and pools. Patricia Beddows, a lecturer of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University and an expert diver, will explore the geochemistry and hydrology of the pools in Belize. The researchers will videotape and map the pools and any artifacts they find. © 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Wells: The Waters of Life

Some interesting information on wells, sacred springs, etc. from Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets." Affirmation of the extremely ancient association of sacred springs and other water sources with the Goddess. The Goddess' ancient and extremely potent symbolism of water/life was expropriated by the worshippers of the Hebrew storm god Yahweh (modeled after the Canaanite storm god Baal) and, later, by the followers of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, who was the son of Joseph (Yahweh) and Mary (Mother Goddess Mari, the consort of Yahweh). The Bible has many references to the "waters of life" and similar analogies: Isaiah 12:3: With exultation YOU people will be certain to draw water out of the springs of salvation. John 7:37-38: Now on the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus was standing up and he cried out, saying "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He that puts faith in me, just as the Scripture has said 'Out from his inmost part streams of living water will flow.'" Revelation 7:16-17: They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore, neither will the sun beat down upon them nor any scorching heat, (17) because the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them, and will guide them to fountains of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes. Wells Springs, fountains, ponds, wells were always female symbols in archaic religions, often considered water-passages to the underground womb, in northern Europe asosciated with Mother Hel, whose name also gave rise to "holy" and "healing." Many pagan sacred springs throughout England received the name of Helen's Well during Christian times, and chruchmen claimed all these wells were named after Empress Helena, Constantine's sainted mother. But the real "Helen" was Hel, or Dame Holle, whose water-womb was called the source of all the children on earth.(1) There were also many wells named after the Goddesses Morgan and Brigit. Coventina, "Mother of the Covens," was associated with healing wells. Margaret, a traditional witch name, also designated wells and springs. Lancashire legend speaks of a statue called Peg o' the Well beside a formerly holy spring in Ribblesdale, said to claim a human sacrifice every seven years.(2) Ecclesiastical canons of the 10th century expressly forbade "well-worshipings," but they continued nonetheless.(3) The Danish poem Water of Life drew on the pagan tradition of resurrection through the Mother-symbol of a sacred well called Hileva (Hel-Eve). With this magic water, a divine queen put her dismembered lover back together and made him live again, as Isis did for Osiris.(4) [I believe this speaks to the extremely ancient tradition of king sacrifice in many cultures, the king being sacrificed by the sacred priestess/queen, in order to bring the world back to life again]. The grotto and fountain of Lourdes once had a similar pagan tradition, now revamped to the service of the church. In 1770 a curate of Bromfield forbade pagan ceremonies, wakes, and fairs at a spring called Hellywell (Hel's Well), to which site the ceremonies had been moved after they were evicted from the churchyard at a still earlier date.(5) The ceremonies had been going on for a very long time. A medieval Life of St. Columba mentioned them in connection with a fountain-shrine "famous among this heathen people, which foolish men, blinded by the devil, worshipped as a divinity."(6) Notes: (1) Rank, 73. (2) Phillips, 112, 160. (3) M. Harrison, 143. (4) Steenstrup, 186. (5) Hazlitt, 78. (6) Joyce, 1, 366.