Satellite Imagery Reveals Giant Serpent Mound in Ohio

It might be the largest yet discovered in the United States.  Wow!  This place also has an interesting name:  Mariemont - Mountain of Mary.  Hmmmmm....

From news.cincinnati.com
Mariemont serpent mound could be world's largest
University of Cincinnati anthropology professor makes big discovery
4:12 AM, Aug. 1, 2011

MARIEMONT – To the untrained eye, there’s nothing special about the earthen hump that runs for hundreds of feet alongside picturesque Miami Bluff Drive and curves down along the edge of the woods toward the Mariemont Swimming Pool.

At certain points, it’s undetectable from the road because trees, honeysuckle and weeds grow on parts of it.

But to the eyes of University of Cincinnati anthropology professor Ken Tankersley, this hump is extraordinarily special.

Using modern technology, he has identified this hump as the remnants of a serpent mound built by Fort Ancient Indians between 1400 and 1800.

This serpent mound is 2,952 feet long, more than twice the length of the celebrated Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, which many believe to be the largest serpent effigy in the world.

“This Mariemont serpent mound is much better preserved than the one in Adams County, which was largely reconstructed,” Tankersley said. “The fact that this much of the Mariemont earthwork survives is miraculous.”

Part of the mound along Miami Bluff Drive is about 7 feet high, close to the original height of the entire earthwork when it was built, he said. Most of the remnants are about 3 feet high.

Tankersley believes the serpent mound was built by women as a symbolic landmark and also as a way to channel water down the slope to the Indian village, which was located at the bottom of what is now Mariemont Avenue. He said it’s highly unlikely anything is buried in the earthwork because serpent mounds weren’t used for that purpose.

The Mariemont serpent mound is in an area that has fascinated archaeologists since 1879, when physician and amateur archaeologist Dr. Charles Metz discovered that a Native American village had existed in the southwestern part of Mariemont.

This area, known to archaeologists as the Madisonville site, is one of Ohio’s most important archaeological sites. The serpent mound abuts the Madisonville site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Mariemont earthwork.  But Tankersley is the first person to identify that earthwork as a serpent mound. Its shape had eluded other archaeologists because much of its remnants had become hidden by trees, bushes and other vegetation.

“Metz knew the earthwork was there, but he had no idea of its geometry,” he said.

Tankersley, who has been studying the Madisonville archaeological site off and on since 1973, didn’t discover the serpent shape until 2007. He used satellite imagery and tracking and a geographical information system. His wife, Ruth, who did some of the fieldwork for his study of the Mariemont earthwork, saw the serpent shape before he did.

She held up a satellite image showing the outline of the earthwork and said to him, “What in the world is this?”

“It’s a snake!” he said in amazement.

Tankersley published a paper about his discovery in a scholarly periodical, The North American Archaeologist, in 2008. Mariemont officials didn’t become aware of the serpent mound until Tankersley gave a presentation earlier this year at a Mariemont Civic Association meeting.

Mariemont Mayor Dan Policastro wants to clear away the honeysuckle and other vegetation that obscures much of the remaining serpent mound. He also wants to post signs informing people of its historic importance and warning them not to walk on it.

“We have to protect this for the future,” Policastro said.

The cliff on the south side of Miami Bluff, where part of the serpent mound is, has serious erosion issues that eventually could threaten the street itself. The presence of the serpent mound gives Mariemont an additional reason to seek a federal grant to stop the hillside erosion.

Policastro would like to create a permanent Indian artifact exhibit in the Mariemont Junior High School building that the school district will vacate after the 2011-12 school year for a new school.

The Mariemont Preservation Foundation has some Indian artifacts. Policastro said the village might ask to borrow some of the thousands of artifacts that were collected in archaeological excavations at the Madisonville site and are now stored, but not exhibited, at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

A Harvard University team, Metz and his crew excavated the Madisonville site through 1911. But the Harvard team never mapped the Mariemont earthwork, Tankersley said. Other unauthorized excavations that occurred later also didn’t see that the earthwork formed a serpent’s head and body.

The Mariemont municipal swimming pool is in the center of the large circle that formed the serpent’s head. The pool was built in 1958. At that time, village officials mistakenly believed there were no more Indian artifacts or other cultural remnants left in that area.

The serpent’s body begins in a wooded area on the south side of Mariemont Avenue and runs along the south side of Miami Bluff to just east of Center Street. Houses are on Miami Bluff’s north side, but not the south side.

A serpent was an Indian clan symbol, Tankersley said. Indians associated snakes with water because they so often were found in bodies of water, including rivers like the Little Miami, which runs along the southern edge of Mariemont near the former site of the ancient Indian village.

“Serpent mounds were built as monuments or landmarks,” Tankersley said.

The Mariemont serpent mound is aligned with the setting sun because of an Indian myth that a beast called the Great Horned Serpent would eat the sun, he said.  As a result, the Mariemont serpent’s head faces west, where the sun disappears. The Great Serpent Mound in Adams County also faces west.

The Shawnees, who regarded snakes as powerful symbols, were among the Fort Ancient Indians who lived in the Mariemont village.

“The Shawnees would sign treaties with the snake symbol,” Tankersley said.

He attributes the survival of so much of the serpent mound to Mariemont’s devotion to preserving history and green space since the community’s founding in the 1920s. Tankersley grew up in nearby neighborhood of Madison Place in Columbia  Township and often rode his bicycle down Miami Bluff Drive and Mariemont Avenue. He liked to hunt for Indian arrowheads and found many in that area.

But he never dreamed he was walking right by a major Indian serpentine earthwork. “A lot of people think you have to travel halfway around the world to find a world-class archaeological site,” Tankersley said. “But here’s one right in our own backyard.”

What Is a "Lamiak?"

In the previous post about the prehistoric cave art discovered in Basque territory, Spain, the term "lamiak" was used to describe a "half woman-half duck" mythic creature who lived in Askondo cave. 

The term rang a bell, but I don't remember exactly where or why I find it so familiar.  My mind seems to be associating it with Siberian shamanism and ancient Kalmyk (Kalmak) tales that were carried over to the New World as those ancient peoples moved east across land and sea to the New World.  I've got some research buried away - on the computer upstairs!  But I'm downstairs now and I'm not going to go digging for it.

I did, however, find some interesting information about lamia or lamiak (plural?).

The first place I ran to was my library to pull out Barbara Walker's indispensible The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.  Sure enough, I found an entry for Lamia:

Lamia
Greek name for the Libyan serpent-goddess -- Medusa, Neith, Athene, Anatha, or Buto.(1)  Lamia was probably a variant of Babylonian Lamashtu, "Mother of Gods" worshipped at Der as a serpent with a woman's head.  Though Lamashtu was feared as a Kali-like Destroyer, yet she was also revered as a supreme Goddess, called Daughter of Heaven and Great Lady.(2)  Greek myth made her another rival of Hera.

The Latin Vulgate Bible gave "Lamia" as a translation of Hebrew Lilith, Adam's recalcitrant first wife.  The Authorized Version rendered lamia as a screech owl.  The Revised Version translated the same word as "night monster."  During the Middle Ages, lamia became a general term for a witch.  A 15th-century German professor of theology stated authoritatively that lamiae were "demons in the shape of old women.(3)  See Vagina Dentata. 

Notes:

(1)  Graves, G.M., 1, 205.
(2)  Budge, A.T., 117.
(3)  Robbins, 295-96.

Whoa - vagina dentata??? Literally - a vagina with teeth?  A devouring vagina?  Oh my!  No wonder men fear us so. 

Geez Louise!  Talk about a Night Monster...  That ties in to all kinds of legends and myths including the Devouring Mother, Jonah and the Whale (Big Fish), the womb as cave where one gets lost and dies from starvation, not to mention the Incubus (or is it Succubus?).  Perhaps one of the most famous renditions of this myth was the action in one of the Star Wars movies where the Millennium Falcon flew into a cave on a planetoid to escape hunting Imperial Fighters.  The Falcon lands deep inside the cave and Chewy, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker get out of the ship and walk around a bit, but after some time there the "cave" they thought they landed in wakes up and it turns out to be a giant serpent-like creature with huge teeth!  YES!  They had flown right through the mouth into the stomach of the Beast!  Tense drama ensues as the Falcon fires up and races toward the entrance - the creature's mouth - that is fast closing with the teeth acting as gigantic bars to escape!  Gulp!

You will also notice the mention of the screech owl, a totem animal that is anciently connected to shamanism and later became a symbol for "wisdom," and its connection to Athena, the new and improved (tamer) version of the archaic Greek goddess Athene; however, early renditions of Athena retained her serpent character in the form of her "shield" with serpents' heads or in some versions, made out of serpent skin, and other depictions showed her wearing a cloak with magical protective powers that had serpents' heads as a fringe. 

But I don't want to go on about Athena/Athene and her counterparts in other countries -- I want to focus on the word "lamia."  So, I did a quick google search and found the following:

This article (blog post?), Mermaids with Dangerous Combs! Lamiak con Peines Peligrosos, posted on 27 January 2011 by Georgina Howard, about lamia/lamiak is very interesting - and it contains a photograph of a shield depicting a lamia:

The lamia on a coat of arms on a house in Oriegi  - in her right hand is the comb, in her
left hand, the "mirror."  Or maybe it's a book - the Book of Knowledge of Good and Evil???

According to legend, the Lamia is a mermaid-like creature with either bird-like feet or a fish’s tail who dwells in mountain springs and streams. Here, in the notoriously misty forest glens of the Basque Country, she can be found combing her long blond hair with a golden comb. Whether it is the golden comb or her golden tresses, I am not sure, but she is often attributed with the disappearance of some lonely shepherd of unmeasured ambition who wanders off into the forest in her pursuit and is consequently never seen again.

So you see, the lamiak that is "half duck-half woman" living in a cave from the original article in the prior post is also something of a nymph, although how a mermaid with a fishtail could frollick about in the woods is beyond my ability to visualize...  On the other hand, a half woman-half bird creature - and we know many of them from ancient depictions (the original Lilith comes to mind, for instance) - could easily hop through woods and lead an unwary shepherd astray...  The lamia in the image, above, would have to stay in water. And yes, this also ties into my ongoing fascination about "visions" of the "Virgin Mary" seen in areas close to or associated with caves and/or rock formations or rocky areas and escarpments and streams or rivers.  I've posted about that at least a couple of times.  Sacred spaces/sacred places -- often associated with the Goddess -- high places, mountains, rock outcroppings, trees, water. 

For further research: 
 
Wikipedia offers a lot of information about the mythological Lamia.  This connection is particularly intriguing:  Antoninus Liberalis uses Lamia as an alternate name for the serpentine drakaina Sybaris. 
 
A "drakaina" is a female dragon, sometimes with human features (female), according to Wikipedia. Okay, does anyone remember the movie "Big Trouble in Little China?"  Wasn't there a "dragon lady" in that movie?  Or am I confusing my movies and it's actually in "The Golden Child" that the "dragon lady" appeared" - discreetely, behind a veiling curtain so all one could see was the teasing outline of a beautiful woman elaborately coiffed and crowned - and with a dragon's tail - moving about and sometimes making hissing noises, smoking a cigarette in a 1930's style holder?
 
Drakaina (mythology)From Wikipedia:


In Greek mythology, a drakaina (Greek: δράκαινα) is a female dragon, sometimes with human-like features. Examples included Campe, Ceto, Delphyne, Echidna, Scylla, Lamia (or Sybaris), Poine, and Python (when represented as female).

Python, slain by Apollo, and the earliest representations of Delphyne are shown as simply gigantic serpents, similar to other Greek dragons. However, although the word "drakaina" is literally the feminine form of drakon (Ancient Greek for dragon or serpent), most drakainas had some features of a human woman. Lamia, Campe, Echidna, and many representations of Ceto, Scylla and Delphyne had the head and torso of a woman.

The drakaina was a monster generally slain only by gods or demigods. Zeus slew Delphyne and Campe, Apollo slew Python, and Argus Panoptes slew Echidna.

Ceto and Echidna were both the mothers of a huge brood of monsters, including other dragon-like creatures. Ceto, according to Hesiod, gave birth to Echidna, as well as Scylla and Ladon, the dragon of the Hesperides. Also according to Hesiod, Echidna gave birth to the Chimera, Cerberus, Orthrus, Nemean lion, Sphinx and the Hydra. (Other ancient authors, such as Hyginus, attribute even more monsters as children of Echidna, such as the Caucasian eagle, Crommyonian sow, Colchian dragon and Scylla and Charybdis.)

Wikipedia "Lamia"

And this from Wikipedia - a drawing of a "lamia" with webbed feet.

From the Online Encyclopedia, an abbreviated description that includes a reference to singing, thus perhaps linking to legends about mermaids who lured unwary sailors to their deaths on the rocks by their beautiful singing, with a link-back to Wikipedia:

1. Lamiak
`Lamiak` (sing.: `lamia`), also called `laminak` (sing. `lamin`). In Basque mythology are creatures with bird-like feet that dwell in rivers and springs. They are comparable with Greco-Roman nymphs. Normally female, they are usually portrayed with a golden comb, that often attracts the unmeasured am...
Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamiak

Not to be excluded, Keats' poem, Lamia.

And from lamia.net:

The Mythological Origins Of Lamia

In Greek mythology, Lamia was the daughter of Poseidon and Lybie, a deity personification of the country of Libya. Lamia is always depicted as being very beautiful, and so she was according to Greek mythology. Zeus fell in love with Lamia, and carried on an affair with her, until his wife, Hera, found out. When Hera discovered the affair, in a jealous rage she stole all of Lamia’s children, except for Scylla, and killed them. Lamia was overcome with horrible grief, and eventually it drove her insane, transforming her into a half snake, half serpent creature that stole and ate children. Zeus, seeking to appease her in some way, granted Lamia the ability to prophecise, as well as remove her own eyes. The gift of being able to remove her eyes was because Lamia could not stop seeing the faces of her dead children.

The story was popular in its sadness and theme, and made its way throughout the world; Lamia went on to have other children, the lowercase lamia, or instead she became lamia, which were a large species of half snake, half feminine monsters. In other parts of the world, mothers used the story of Lamia to frighten their children into obedience. Later on, authors began to attribute other, more lurid details to Lamia, such as a hermaphroditic penis, which came from the sadly perverse mind of Aristophanes. Whores throughout early folklore and fictional literature were sometimes given the name Lamia. In modern Greek folklore or culture, there is still the Lamia, although now she is Lamiae; a slovenly woman, unclean, and lazy, or exceptionally sdtupid, as well as promiscuous. In other modern Greek fairy tales, Lamia is somewhat similar to the Slavic Baba Yaga. She lives in a tower, eats children or the flesh of would-be heroes, and has magical powers. The hero should either kill her, avoid her, or gain her favor so that she can guide him on whatever quest he’s on.

The tower, of course, is today's rook in western-style chess ("castle" in English, "tower" in various languages). In India, the rook created in chess sets for export to the West was an elephant , often with a howdah on its back, perhaps a call-back to the time in India when the rook and bishop traded places on the chessboard. Check out Jean-Louis Cazaux's site for numerous examples of Indian chess sets featuring elephants for the Kings, Ministers (Queen) and rooks. 

I am wondering about this image from lamia.net - which did not have a caption or attribution.  It looks Persian or maybe Indian to me.  Can anyone provide further information on it?  I find it very interesting because of the tree image - the Tree of Life? - dead center in the image and the large black serpent underneath the earth nearly centered underneath it.  Now if that doesn't evoke the image of the Nordic World Tree I don't know what does!  The figures under the earth all have serpent tails - that could easily be described as "fish tails", couldn't they.  Interesting, heh?  And I think they're all females, although it's a little hard to tell because I can't enlarnge the image, but they all have long hair flowing down their backs.  And what is that the serpent is doing?  Is it pushing the blue infant through the earth to the surface?  Or is it preparing to suck the blue infant down to the underworld?  There's obviously some kind of ritual going on above-ground - note the drummer and musicians on the left-hand side of the image.  And on the right, the above-ground male figure drawn larger than anything else (other than the serpent), is he a king?  I would like to know what actually is going on in this picture!

Note added on Monday, May 16, 2011:  The half-human female serpents in the image are NOT lamiak; they are, perhaps, nagini.  I found a larger image which makes clear that what I thought was a blue infant is actually Krishna, who dances over the subdued Kaliya Naag in river Yamuna, while his wives are praying to Krishna for his mercy. Also seen on the banks are people of Gokula, Krishna's father Nanda Baba and his brother Balarama. From a Bhagavata Purana manuscript, c. 1640.

Dacian Gold - Spectacular!

Photograph by Mihai Barbu, Reuters, Leaves and snake heads
adorn a Dacian bracelet in the Romanian National History Museum
(file picture).

'Sis sent this to me over her super-duper whatever phone (can you tell I don't have one?  Don't even know what they are or what they're called!) -- So - are they real - or ar they fake?  Check out the photograph of one  here and decide for yourself --

Ancient Transylvanians Rich in Gold, Treasure Shows
Ancient Transylvanians likely controlled untold riches in gold, suggests a new study of a cache of priceless, snake-shaped bracelets.

Showing "no economy of gold at all," craftsmen shaped each spiral cuff from an entire ingot, study author Bogdan Constantinescu said.

Most of the 2,000-year-old accessories tip the scales at about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) each, more than some laptops—a heft that materials scientist Paul Craddock found "surprising."

"Yes," Craddock concluded, "they did have a lot of gold."

"They" are the Dacian people, mysterious contemporaries of the ancient Romans. Ruling Transylvania centuries before Bram Stoker dreamed up Dracula, the Dacians left behind no writings but, the bracelets suggest, were apparently flush with treasure—as historians have long suspected, given the mineral wealth of the region's mountains and rivers.

Counterfeit Claims
Looters unearthed some two dozen of the bracelets—12 have now been recovered by authorities—about ten years ago at the Sarmizegetusa Regia archaeological site in Romania's Transylvania region (pictures).

Perhaps hoping to avoid stiff penalties for archaeological plunder, the men claimed that a now dead comrade had made the bracelets out of melted-down ancient Greek coins—leading many experts to doubt the cuffs' authenticity.

The new study, though, points out that Greek coins are made of purer gold than the Sarmizegetusa (SAHR-mee-sheh-jeh-TOO-sha) hoard. Furthermore, the bracelets were found to be at least 2,000 years old.

Among the evidence of their age are dark blotches indicative of many years underground, researchers say. Also, the bracelets were found with coins produced between roughly 100 B.C. and 70 B.C., which suggests the cuffs were buried—if not necessarily created—during that time frame.

The bracelets seem to hail from the right place as well as the right time, according to study author Constantinescu, a physicist with the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering in Bucharest.

Their chemical signature matches that of Transylvanian gold, and Constantinescu suspects the gold for the bracelets likely came from two rivers near Sarmizetusa Regia.

The Dacians of Transylvania
Now reduced to faint traces of fortifications and shrines, Sarmizetusa Regia was the Dacian religious and political capital in the last couple centuries of the culture's heyday, which lasted from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 100, when Rome conquered Dacia.

Though occasionally unified as a confederation, the Dacians were usually a loose collection of tribes. Mainly farmers and shepherds, the culture also included international traders, potters, and iron smelters, archaeological finds suggest.

But since the Dacians lacked a written language, we may never understand the extent of their accomplishments. Much of what's known about them, after all, was written by their Roman conquerors—"not necessarily a good source," said Ernest Latham, who teaches about Romania at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

For God or Country—Or Cash?
Starved of information about the Dacians, researchers are mining the bracelets for meaning. What were they for?

One thing they weren't for is day-to-day adornment, Constaninescu said—the cuffs show no sign of wear.

He suspects they may have been offerings to the Dacians' only god, Zalmoxis. This, he said, may explain why the hoard rested undisturbed for thousands of years—just outside the walls of a major Dacian center, no less.

"Probably there was divine punishment, damnation, for anyone who tried to take pieces" of the treasure, he speculated. "Gold belonged to the god."

Religious use "is a very good guess," said archaeologist Otis Crandell, of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Crandell, who wasn't part of the study, thinks the bracelets may have been hoarded for trade or intended for distribution as tokens of royal favor.

He admitted, though, that it's all guesswork "until we find them in context"—that is, until archaeologists can reunite the bracelets and their accompanying artifacts in the exact spot where they were unearthed. [Rots of ruck.]

But the possibility of complete context may have vanished between 1999 and 2001, when the looters unearthed the bracelets—some in a chest hidden under a large slab of rock—and began selling them illegally.

To this day 12 of the looted bracelets remain missing. The other 12 are housed at the Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest.

How They Could Have Been Faked
Because of the murk surrounding the hoard's discovery, it may never be authenticated to scientists' full satisfaction.

For example, Craddock, formerly of the British Museum, said forgers could have cooked up an alloy simulating Transylvanian gold, then aged the bracelets in acid.

Even study author Constantinescu said he can't completely rule out the possibility that the bracelets were made in modern times. But he said it would've been in no one's financial interest to forge so many similar objects.

"The price would drop if you have 20 practically identical items," he said. "It would be crazy."

Whatever their provenance, the bracelets are enough to wow even seasoned researchers.

Please go to corresponding website for complete details.

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Reminds me of Scythian artistry with gold, hmmm....  And the ancient symbol of the Goddess, the serpent, was still in use 2,000 years ago, as most beautifully expressed in this cuff.  Can you imagine wearing this on your arm, weighing in at 2.2 pounds?  Wow! 

The Sata Snake Spell

It wasn't just the ancient Egyptians that revered the snake/serpent as a symbol of regeneration and rebirth. This article leaves out quite a lot regarding why the snake is so important in iconograpy of eternal life but it is okay, as far as it goes.  (For a general overview of serpent symbolism in multiple cultures, see Wikipedia Serpent-Symbolism).

From the guardian.co.uk
The magic of the mummies
The Egyptian Book of the Dead contains a spell that turns the speaker into a snake
Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 November 2010 20.00 GMT

I am the Sata-snake, long of years, who sleeps and is reborn each day. I am the Sata-snake, dwelling in the limits of the earth. I sleep and am reborn, renewed and rejuvenated each day."

This is a translation of a spell (right) from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, on display at the British Museum, which enables the speaker to change into a snake. It may not read like a spell – eye of bat, skin of toad – but it was expected to have a magical effect and to be recited by a mummy – the dead person in the tomb.

Why a snake? Well, if you wanted to travel after death through the Western Lands, over hill and through river, a serpent's body was ideal. Also, the Sata-snake was thought to be reborn in an endless cycle mirroring the dream of eternal life.

The spell is shorter in English; hieroglyphs, says John H Taylor, curator of the exhibition, include phonetic signs and ideograms, and any word is likely to mix the two. But every symbol has magic in it. Images and words combine to give the mummy power, as The Book of the Dead puts it, to "go forth by day".

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The sacred barque upon which the deceased braves the obstacles of the after-life to reach the
other side of the sky and achieve the realm of the Imperishable stars, in Hour 10 symbolically
takes the form of Mehen, the Enveloper, ancient protector of Pharaoh, as the deceased
(identified with Pharaoh) is assuming a new form as Horus hovers overhead.  Notice
that Mehen as the sacred barque wears the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The Tenth Hour

A change of direction. We turn south to the luminous, solar region of Helipotis. Af, purified by the fire and water, becomes the unborn Kepri. The snake, Mehen, entwines itself around this body, which is in the process of being reborn. A falcon hovers above the boat. The cynocephalus of Thot recognize the god and present the Oudjats to him. The limpid waters are split where those who have already bathed in the light of the east peacefully frolic.

Queen Elizabeth I and a Serpent

Well, knock me off my bar stool with a feather!

Portrait of Elizabeth I reveals she held serpent where a posy now appears
Behind the enigmatic smile: National Portrait Gallery to display 16th century work which has given up its secret after 400 years

Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 4 March 2010 13.27 GMT

Detail from the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I showing the outline of the coiled serpent she originally held. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery/PA

The queen wears a magnificent gown and a faint, enigmatic smile ‑ but then she knows what she really holds in her hands, a secret revealed again to the world after more than 400 years.

Many portraits of Elizabeth I show her holding a posy, a conventional symbol of virginity or virtue. The National Portrait Gallery has discovered that in this portrait Gloriana originally held a far more disturbing object ‑ a serpent twined around her fingers.

A serpent can sometimes represent wisdom and judgment, as in the serpent and staff symbol of medicine, but in Christian iconography it is more often a symbol of sin or even the devil. [And in antiquity it was a symbol for the Great Goddess, so it wouldn't have been a stretch for the artist to associate Gloriana, the Virgin Queen, with the Great Goddess, who was virgin/mother/crone.]

The unknown artist, painting around the late 1580s, clearly had a last-minute panic about the ambiguity of the image: the scaly blue-green and black serpent was painted out, and replaced with the safe ‑ if slightly oddly shaped ‑ posy.

Tarnya Cooper, curator of 16th century paintings at the gallery, who has led the research into several Tudor portraits about to be redisplayed, says the serpent is a unique attribute in portraits of the queen. "The portrait of Elizabeth I with a hidden serpent is a really unusual survival. Yet it is difficult to know exactly why the serpent may have been originally included, or how common this motif might have been. The queen certainly owned jewellery and costume including emblems of serpents, which were probably understood as a symbol of wisdom. However, no other portrait of Elizabeth appears to depict her holding a snake."

The gallery has owned the portrait for a century, but its condition is poor and it has not been on display since 1921. It will now be included in an exhibition opening later this month, Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, of paintings made from the 1560s until just after the queen's death in 1603, which have all been altered in some way.

The x-rays that drove the serpent out of its lair also revealed another secret: the queen's exceptionally bumpy forehead is because of the inner woman trying to get out. The portrait was painted over an earlier, unfinished painting of another woman, probably by a different artist: the eyes and nose of the lost woman can just be seen in the queen's forehead.

Cooper said: "The recent technical analysis on these remarkable portraits has been critical to our understanding of Tudor painting."

The artist may never have seen the queen in the flesh ‑ and certainly, the art historians believe, never saw the serpent.

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Information from the National Portrait Gallery:

Queen Elizabeth I
News Release

4 March 2010

MYSTERY SNAKE REVEALED IN ELIZABETH I PORTRAIT. NEW RESEARCH SHOWS CHANGING FACES OF THE TUDOR QUEEN

Scientific detective work has revealed a mysterious coiled serpent in the hands of Queen Elizabeth I, which was painted out by the artist shortly afterwards, in a portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. It has also been revealed that this portrait of the queen, which has not been on display at the Gallery since 1921, was painted over an unfinished portrait of an unknown sitter. The revelations about this painting and three others of the Tudor queen will form a new display, Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, from 13 March at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project led by Dr Tarnya Cooper.

The portrait of Elizabeth I with the serpent (NPG 200) was painted by an unknown artist in the 1580s or early 1590s. Degradation over time has revealed that Elizabeth I was originally painted holding the serpent, the outline of which is now visible on the surface. Paint analysis has shown that the snake was part of the original design, painted at the same time as the rest of the portrait, and Elizabeth's fingers were originally clasped around the snake (as seen in the artist's impression). At the final stage of painting a decision was made not to include this emblem, and the Queen was shown holding a small bunch of roses instead. A serpent was sometimes used to represent wisdom, prudence and reasoned judgment - all fitting attributes for a Queen - but in the Christian tradition serpents have also been used to represent Satan and original sin. The removal of the snake may therefore have been due to the ambiguity of the emblem. The snake is mainly black, but has greenish blue scales and was almost certainly painted from imagination.

It has also been revealed that the same portrait was painted over the unfinished portrait of an unknown woman. X-ray photography shows a female head facing in the opposite direction and in a higher position than the queen. The eyes and nose of the first face can be seen where paint has been lost from Elizabeth's forehead. The identity of this original sitter remains a mystery, but the unfinished portrait was very competently painted and appears to be by a different painter. This discovery confirms that sixteenth-century panels were sometimes re-used and recycled by artists. The unknown woman appears to have been wearing a French hood, fashionable in 1570-1580s, suggesting that there may have been a period of a few years before the panel was re-used for the portrait of Elizabeth I.

The four portraits in the display, Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, are all from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, and two have not been on display for decades. The portraits date from the 1560s until just after the queen's death and they have all changed in appearance in some way since they were created. Advanced scientific techniques have helped to unlock clues as to how they would have originally looked. Each has recently undergone in-depth technical analysis as part of the Gallery's Making Art in Tudor Britain research project. The display will examine why the changes took place and the evidence this tells us about portraits of Elizabeth I and artistic practices in this period.

Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I runs from 13 March - 26 September 2010 in Room 2 of the National Portrait Gallery.

Dr Tarnya Cooper says: ‘The recent technical analysis on these remarkable portraits has been critical to our understanding of Tudor painting. The portrait of Elizabeth I with a hidden serpent is a really unusual survival. Yet, it is difficult to know exactly why the serpent may have been originally included, or how common this motif might have been. The queen certainly owned jewelry and costume including emblems of serpents, which were probably understood as a symbol of wisdom. However no other portrait of Elizabeth appears to depict her holding a snake. The current condition of the picture has meant it has not been on display for decades, and this display provides an exciting opportunity to present it to the public alongside other key portraits.'

Further information on Making Art in Tudor Britain

For further press information contact: Eleanor Macnair, Press Officer, National Portrait Gallery, Tel 0207 321 6620 (not for publication) Email emacnair@npg.org.uk

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE. Opening hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am - 6pm (Gallery closure commences at 5.50pm) Late Opening: Thursday, Friday: 10am - 9pm (Gallery closure commences at 8.50pm) Nearest Underground: Leicester Square/Charing Cross Recorded information: 020 7312 2463 General information: 020 7306 0055 Website: www.npg.org.uk

Evan Lysacek and Olympic Gold - a Dream Come True

Evan Lysacek did it when it counted - last night, on the ice, possibly the greatest performance of his life.  Intense, near perfect, the program perfectly designed to highlight his strengths -- great spins and balance, solid triple jumps, intricately edged footwork, perfect coordination of the choreography with the music and just the right emotional note - not too little, not too hammy. 

The entire routine was balanced between athleticism and artistry - and carefully designed so that in the second half of the program, four jumps (some in combination) were performed for a 10% bonus of the score for each jump/combination.  It is in the second half of the 4:40 minutes that the men skate that their legs are burning and feeling heavy, and it takes extra effort, willpower, strength and conditioning - whatever it takes - to make those jumps and not only make them, but to land them and land them well.  Here is the video (I hope) at NBC's website of Lysacek's gold-winning performance.  I found it mesmerizing. 

Personally, I believe the Goddess had a hand in his victory.  Yes, I know I know, you'll pooh-pooh me, LOL!  But before you dismiss me altogether, consider two design elements that were an integral part - indeed, perhaps the most important part - of his costume.

Do you see them?  They're as plain as day. Two serpents - Goddess symbols! (Photo: USA Today file)  Did the costume designer actually know this, and purposely incorporate those symbols on Lysacek's costume?  I've no idea.  But, Scheherazade, the great, transcendent musical suite of Rimsky-Korsakov, is firmly based in Persian myths and legends from pre-Islamic times.  Barbara Walker, in her discussion of serpent symbolism in The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, says:

Arabian tradition identified the food of immortality with the female uterine blood, colored "royal purple"; and the Mother's uterine garden with the moon temple at Marib in Sheba.  Legend said the serpents of Sheba were purple with the divine essence, and lived in trees; the people were serpentlike, with forked tongues, great wisdom, and longevity. (41)  From Sheba might have come the mysterious life-giving substance called shiba in the Epic of Gilgamesh, dispensed by the wife of Uta-Napishtim (Noah), who had become the only immortal man; his wife therefore was a Goddess.  When this holy matriarch gave shiba to Gilgamesh, he shed his old, diseased skin like a snake, and emerged from it reborn.(42)

Persians also maintained the symbolic connections between menstrual blood and the serpent's secret of longevity.  Mithraists claimed immortality was conferred by the blood of the sacrificial bull, but a serpent was there to collect the blood as it flowed from the bull's body; and this blood was imitation-menstrual blood in that it was "delivered by the moon."(43)

Notes:

41. Thomson, 195.
42. Assy. & Baby. Lit., 360; Hooke, M.E.M., 55.
43. Larousse, 316.

So, maybe I'm not so crazy after all...

A Checkerboard-Patterned Stud and Gold Serpents

Part of the magnificent and unprecented find called the Staffordshire Hoard.

I have found references in several articles to five "mysterious" small gold serpents that archaeologists cannot figure out - what they mean, what they may have been a part of.  See, for instance, this comment from an Art Daily article:  Gems to be displayed for the first time include a delicate filigree gold horse’s head and gold snakes that have left experts baffled as to what they could have been used for . . .

I wasn't able to locate a photograph online of any of these serpents.  I want to see the five little gold serpents!  Are they game pieces?  Pieces off a horse tackle?  Jewelry?

While searching for images of the serpents, I found this lovely little item from the Hoard, described as a millefiori stud.

Millefiori (literally "thousand flowers"), dates back to Roman times.  I wonder if the archaeologists will be able to pinpoint the date this lovely piece was created?  There is ongoing discussion about when the Hoard was put into the ground; and, of course, even if a date can be agreed upon for that event, individual items that make up the Hoard may be much older than 650-750 CE.

What a beautiful piece! And fascinating. For instance, notice the markings around the large inner border marked out in gold - not all of the lines are straight, and there is a distinct pattern in these lines, set at 90 degrees to each other, dividing the circle into four equal parts. 

The inner-most pattern of the black/gold/white millefiori checkerboard pattern consists of a 3x3 square with curved edges to fit into the circular pattern; the outside frame increases the size of the "square" to 4x4.  I was reminded of the oldest magic square known in history - from ancient China, the Lo Shu magic square that sums to 15 in all directions. 

The center of the Lo Shu is the number 5, and we are reminded of that number (the number of the sacred spiral seen repeatedly in nature) by the five black rectangles that make up center of the millefiori design; the number 5, which in Chinese lore is considered "masculine," is complemented by four white rectangles, four being an even number and therefore considered "feminine" by the Chinese.  Ultimately, though, the black/white checkerboard pattern is balanced to at - 8 white and 8 black, a perfect reflection of the ancient Taoist principle of yin/yang. 

The overall design of the Staffordshire Hoard stud reminds me of an ancient Chinese boardgame - liubo.  I know it sounds crazy -but look at all of the elements of the millefiore stud and compare it to this standard liubo board configuration from Wikipedia commons.  The "V"s in the four corners, facing outward; the "L"s on the center of each of the four sides; and four "T"s centered around the perimeter of the innermost space.  This inner center space could well be the ancestor of the "palace" in the later game of xiang qi, and in some versions of the ancient liubo, was a pool where fish cavorted - a sacred pool, perhaps? It is not known what role the "fish" played in liubo, only that they were sometimes "caught."

A c. 400 BCE serpent-overlaid liubo board.  You'll notice that the "V"s and the "L"s are there in their traditional places - but it's very hard to see any "T"s  amid the inner markings, although suggested by the twisting bodies of the numerous serpents and three horizontally-laid out grid marks.  Interesting.  A variation on a theme...

Just what are those markings on the inner border around the black and white checkered millefiore stud?  Could those possibly be representations of "L"s from a liubo board?

Caduceus: Ancient Serpent Symbol of Healing

From Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Caduceus Some Gnostic Christians worshipped the serpent hung on a cross, rod, or Tree of Life, calling it Christ the Savior, alto a title of Hermes the Wise Serpent represented by his own holy caduceus, the scepter of two serpents. This was one of the oldest and most revedred holy symbols. "The usual mhythological association of the serpent is not, as in the Bible, with corruption, but with physical and spiritual health, as in the Greek caduceus." To Sumerians it was an emblem of life, appearing on art works like the Libation Cup of Cudea, ca. 2000 B.C. In pre-Hellenic Gfreece the caduceus was displayed on healing temples like those of Asclepius, Hygeia, and Panacea, which is why it is still an international symbol of the medical profession. The caduceus is found also in Aztec sacred art, ehthroned like a serpent-deity on an altar. North American Indians knew it too. A Navaho medicine man said his people's sacred cave once featured "a stone carving of two snakes intertwined, the heads facing east and west."(1) [Image from awugabunnies.co.uk] Hindu symbolism equated the caduceus with the central spirit of the human body, the spinal column, with two mystic serpents twined around it like the genetic double helix: ida-nadi to the left, pingala-nadi to the right.(2) Moses' brazen serpent on a pole, the mere sight of which cured the Israelites, was probably a prophylactic caduceus (Numbers 21:9). It was named Nehushtan, and worshipped in the tabernacle up to the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). Notes: (1) Campbell, M.I., 282-84, 286-88, 294-95. (2) Bardo Thodol, 215. Note: Difference between the Rod of Asclepius (a single serpent twined around a rod) and the Caduceus (two serpents intertwined around each other and a rod). See more at Wikipedia on the Rod of Asclepius (contains the entire account about what led to Moses constructing and mounting the copper serpent on a pole, starting at Numbers: 6).

Need Help Identifying This Image

Found at this German website: http://www.erdwerk-archaeologie.de/vortraege.html What is it (for instance, a tombstone)? Where does it come from? Provenance? How old? Are those runes carved into the serpent's back? If they are runes, can anyone read them and translate them for me? Gee, I don't want too much, do I. LOL!

New Findings on "Snake Cult"

Oh yes, the Goddess in the form of a serpent rears up and - well - you can read for yourself. Just be sure to substitute feminine pronouns for masculine pronouns, and Goddess for God, and the article will make very good sense. Please also keep in mind that the Iron Age is relatively recent in historical terms. New findings on snake cult challenge Iron Age theories John Henzell Last Updated: July 16. 2009 1:29AM UAE / July 15. 2009 9:29PM GMT New research into a snake cult that lived in the mountains near Masafi during the Iron Age will be presented next week at the world’s leading conference on Arabian archaeology. Initial excavations at the Al Bithnah site, between 2000 and 2004, indicated that it had been the meeting place for a religious cult based around snake iconography between 2,500 and 3,100 years ago. Anne Benoist, the French archaeologist who headed the dig, will tell the Seminar for Arabian Studies in London that a new meeting place has been found near the first, with their proximity challenging theories about territorial organisation, religion and collective life in eastern Arabia during that era of the Iron Age. The artefacts unearthed by Dr Benoist’s group include incense burners and posts decorated with snakes, along with signs that copper had been mined and smelted. They indicated a god symbolised by a snake, in common with iconography found elsewhere on the Arabian peninsula [and much older serpent iconography in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, not to mention well-established serpent-worshipping centers elsewhere in the Middle East], and supported theories that there was an ancient but complex society with separate roles for priests and bureaucrats. At the time, snakes were considered to be symbols of knowledge and prosperity. Similar sites have been found elsewhere in the UAE and in Oman, Yemen, Bahrain and southern Iran, suggesting that there were cultural and trade links during the Iron Age. Dr Benoist’s presentation will be one of dozens at the three-day seminar in the British Museum, which begins next Thursday. Other speakers will address connections between the Levant and Southern Arabian communities in the Pleistocene era, the use of fragments from early Qurans to describe the development of written Arabic, and new methods to investigate sites at the bottom of the Gulf, which was above sea level 18,000 years ago at the last glacial maximum.

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Cf. All the stuff in the Old Testament about the Copper Serpent (a well-established goddess-worshipping cult exported out of Egypt when the Hebrews left for the "Promised Land") For a "far out" take on ancient serpent symbolism in the Middle East, check out "The Gnostic Secret of Solomon's Temple" by none other than Philip Gardiner See also this entry from Ancient Goths, a Google blog, for lots of images of Iron Age serpents and serpent symbolism from the Iron Age See also references to serpent goddesses in When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone (couldn't the author come up with a better name than that???), at Google books. The reference to the goddess "She" reminded me so much of my college days when, for some course or other, I ended up reading the classic H. Rider Haggard novel She.

Tomb of Eve?

An interesting money-making scam for the local community... (Image: Eve, the Serpent, and Death, by Hans Baldung Grien c. 1520-25 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). From The New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 10, 2008 Filed at 10:09 a.m. ET JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- On a sweltering August morning, a small group of Iranians crowded outside the green metal door of a cemetery. They wanted to go in to look at the remains of one particular tomb: the tomb of biblical Eve. Like hundreds of Muslims who visit Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage in nearby Mecca, the Iranians had heard the legend that Eve was buried in that spot. The two blue signs inscribed with ''The Graveyard of our mother Eve'' flanking the cemetery entrance appeared to add credibility to a story passed on by generations of Saudis but never scientifically proven. ''We hear this is the tomb of Eve,'' said Minoo Ghadimkhani, 45. ''That is why we want to go in.'' There is no archaeological evidence old enough to authenticate the story of Eve's burial in Jiddah, according to many Bible experts. But that hasn't kept the legend from persisting. Some say that the city's name, when pronounced as ''Jaddah'' -- an Arabic word that means grandmother -- is a reference to Eve. No one really knows how the story originated, and many in this Red Sea port city dismiss it as a myth. ''It's a legend, but it is one mentioned by many scholars,'' said Sami Nawar, general director for culture and tourism. Nawar, an expert on the history of old Jiddah, likes to lace a bit of the legend into his presentations on the city to visiting foreign dignitaries and journalists. ''Jiddah is the most feminine city in the whole world because it has Eve,'' Nawar says. The Quran, Islam's holy book, talks about Adam and Eve's expulsion from paradise after eating from the fruit of the forbidden tree. It does not say where they appeared on earth. But Arab tradition puts Adam in the holy city of Mecca, which is 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of Jiddah, where God ordered him to build the Kaaba, the sacred stone structure that Muslims face during their five daily prayers, according to Nawar. God then told Adam to go to a hill in Mecca to repent for his sins, said Nawar. After he repented, God sent him Eve, and the hill became known as Mount Arafat, from the Arabic word that means to know, he added. That story places Eve, Hawwa in Arabic, in the vicinity of Jiddah, which is the entry point for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. It could explain how the legend of her burial began. Arab and Western historians and travelers have described a tomb outside the walls of old Jiddah that they referred to as Eve's Graveyard. Historian Hatoon al-Fassi said 9th century Mecca historian al-Fakihi reported that two of Prophet Muhammad's companions, Ibn Abbas and Ibn Massoud, mentioned Eve's tomb. The prophet died in 623. Writing about Jiddah in his ''Travels,'' Ibn Jubayr, a 12th century geographer, traveler and poet, born in Valencia, then the seat of an Arab emirate, says that ''in it is a place having an ancient and lofty dome, which is said to have been the lodging place of Eve, the mother of mankind, God's blessing upon her when on her way to (Mecca).'' The passage was quoted by the Arab News, a Saudi paper. The tomb no longer exists. And it's not clear how it was destroyed. Those who have been inside the cemetery say that in its place is a row of unmarked tombs, and there's nothing to indicate the tomb had been there. (The Wahhabi strain of Islam bans the marking of tombs, and women in the Saudi kingdom are barred from entering cemeteries.) William Dever, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at the University of Arizona and a prominent U.S. archaeologist, said there just isn't any archaeological evidence going back far enough to back up the claims. ''The problem is that these are all legends, these are all myths and we can't date them,'' said Dever, who specializes in the history of Israel and Near East in biblical times. ''My guess is the story could go back two or three thousand years, but we don't have any archaeological proof.'' ''There are lots of traditional tombs of saints of various kinds in the Middle East,'' he added. ''But they are never excavated or investigated scientifically.'' Asked if he had heard of any other final resting place for Eve, Dever said, ''No. There are tombs of Abraham all over the place, but I don't honestly know in Israel or the West Bank or Jordan of any Eve tomb in these places.'' On the quiet street of the cemetery, which faces low-rise, rundown buildings, the Eve legend remains alive even though those who grew up with the story don't really believe it. Ahmed Bakoudij, a 32-year-old mechanic, said he called his garage ''Hawwa's Garage'' despite his skepticism. ''I've been hearing about Hawwa's grave since I was a kid,'' said Bakoudij. ''But no one believes it. I have to see it with my own eyes to believe it.'' ''But,'' he added, ''if I ever have kids, I'll pass on the legend to them.'' Grocer Saleh Ba-Aqeel said hundreds of Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Indonesia and other countries visit the cemetery, especially before and after the annual hajj pilgrimage. ''When they come and ask me if Eve is really buried here, I tell them, 'God only knows,''' said Ba-Aqeel.

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"Jaddah" is grandmother in Arabic - interesting. The connection of Adam/Eve to the kaaba is also interesting, since Mecca (Makkah) is an ancient center of goddess worship (the Triple Goddess) prior to the advent of Islam. It goes without saying that the black granite square built on the site of the original goddesses' temple (now inside a giant courtyard enclosed by a mosque) incorporates a sacred meterorite (like the meteorite that was worshipped as the Goddess Diana in ancient Ephesus) was NOT built by Adam who, if he existed, lived hundreds of thousands of years before its construction! Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" contains a lengthy entry on Eve, which I won't post in full here, just some interesting pieces from which I've omitted footnoted references: The biblical title of Eve, "Mother of All Living," was a translation of Kali Ma's title Jaganmata. She was also known in India as Jiva or Ieva, the Creatress of all manifested forms. ... The original Eve had no spouse except the serpent, a living phallus she created for her own sexual pleasure. Some ancient peoples regarded the Goddess and her serpent as their first parents. [for instance, the most ancient myths of China point to a half-human/half-serpent Empress and Emperor who created all living things and all useful arts and crafts for mankind]. Sacred icons showed the Goddess giving life to a man, while her serpent coiled around the apple tree behind her. Deliberate misinterpretation of such icons produced ideas for revised creation myths like the one in Genesis. ... [Eve was sometimes named] Nahemah, Naama, or Namrael, who gave birth to the original man and woman. One of Eve's Tantric names was Adita Eva: "the Very Beginning." In northern Babylonia, Eve was known as "the divine Lady of Eden," or "Goddess of the Tree of Life." Assyrians called her Nin-Eveh, "Holy Lady Eve," after whom their capital was named. ... The secret of God's "Name of power," the Tetragrammaton, was that three-quarters of it invoked not God, but Eve. YHWH, yod-he-vau-he, came from the Hebrew root HWH, meaning both "life" and "woman" - in Latin letters, E-V-E. [Compare to Arabic "Hawwa" mentioned in the article above]. With the addition of an I (yod), it amounted to the Goddess' invocation of her own name as the Word of creation, a common idea in Egypt and other ancient lands. ... Gnostic scriptures ... said Eve not only created Adam and obtained his admission to heaven; she was the very soul within him, as Shakti was the soul of every Hindu god and yogi. Adam couldn't live without "power from the Mother," so she descended to earth as "the Good Spirit, the Thought of Light called by him 'Life' (Hawwa)."

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Where did the horrid fear of women (and their subsequent subjugation and persecution that such fear engenders) that permeates so much religion today come from? Why, for instance, would the particular brand of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia ban women from cemeteries (see article above)!?! Perhaps it is because, like all mother goddesses, Eve not only had the power to create and give life, she had the power to destroy and take life away. In other words, the Mother reflected the natural cycle of all living things: creation/birth, coming to fruition/reproduction, old age/decay, death, reincorporation into the earth/resurrection (reincarnation) into new life. Walker puts it this way: "This was the real origin of the church fathers' fear and hatred of women, which expanded into a sexist attitude that permeated all of western society: Woman was identified with Death. Her countervailing responsibility for birth was taken away, and the creation of life was lad to the credit of the Father-god, whose priests claimed he could remove the curse of death. ... Medieval theologians said Adam was forgiven (for his original sin). ... but for Eve there was no forgiveness. No peace was offered to her or her daughters. Presumably, they were left behind in hell. Christian theologians espoused the same theory as Persian patriarchs, that heaven was closed to all women except those who were submissive and worshipped their husbands as gods." Personally, I'd rather go to hell. Learn more about Eve from Christopher Witcombe.