tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25603787642040530942024-03-06T02:16:36.428+00:00Understanding our pastMy observations from history.Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-86671187278390661552018-04-07T17:37:00.000+01:002018-04-07T17:49:33.458+01:00The Paisley pattern's Zoroastrian root<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Scottish town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley,_Renfrewshire">Paisley</a> became a major producer of textiles from the early 19th century and a certain pattern came to be associated with that town.<br />
The "Paisley" design comes from the Persian "<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design)">buta</a></i>" design described as being shrub shaped.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Printed_Tissue_Stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="676" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Printed_Tissue_Stamp.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design)</td></tr>
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It became popular in Britain due to the importation of silk shawls from India during the late 18th century via the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company">East India Company</a>. In the Indian subcontinent the shape is thought to be a mango.<br />
The design is said to have become popular in India during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire">Mughal</a> era.<br />
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Like much else of Mughal culture, this emblem was Iranian in origin.<br />
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"<i>We find the first manifestations of this ancient motif in Scythian and Achaemenid art mainly portrayed as the wings of Homa or Senmurv and which lasted in the same manner until the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire">Sassanian</a> period</i>."- Dr Cyrus Parham, in "<b><i><a href="https://www.oparsbooks.com/jr/nashr-e-danesh">Nashr-e Danesh</a></i></b>" (Iran University Press, Tehran, 1999, volume 16, number 4, page 1378)<br />
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These wings were also used on the crown of the later Sassanian monarchs from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_II">Khosrow II</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazdegerd_III">Yazdegerd III</a> (6th - 7th centuries). Winged animals within roundels were depicted on costly silk clothing, worn by the elites of the pre-Islamic Iranian world.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdERIqlohYXtwINGZdsd8c_wf4G7OaRbK6C3TmZn4xShloq2RyXlHVmkzVBA_g3yacF7tE4U2eqU7_TPdB25SqL-6jFT-UkUzR2r-ygRH8RknbqR0Rb3PZcbjmpaaKmmUvb47NWV6jujM/s1600/Khosrau+II%252C+619+AD%252C+coin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="1168" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdERIqlohYXtwINGZdsd8c_wf4G7OaRbK6C3TmZn4xShloq2RyXlHVmkzVBA_g3yacF7tE4U2eqU7_TPdB25SqL-6jFT-UkUzR2r-ygRH8RknbqR0Rb3PZcbjmpaaKmmUvb47NWV6jujM/s320/Khosrau+II%252C+619+AD%252C+coin.jpg" width="303" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A silver Drachm of Khosrow II (from the Yazd mint dated 620AD) that I had owned. Note his crown.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhJjncPd4M9fK99BQTv_12RlS6_mro6SWIKSXLfclDfzhH5skXhDewUXqnzQjfJG2k_iIsRZh6u7bjxzypqz8ywknfE5KAuo1UD7_n9Oym9vyFZAZVwMcSL8DFPEyjTGCygHn-kU2fD0/s1600/Khusro+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="572" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhJjncPd4M9fK99BQTv_12RlS6_mro6SWIKSXLfclDfzhH5skXhDewUXqnzQjfJG2k_iIsRZh6u7bjxzypqz8ywknfE5KAuo1UD7_n9Oym9vyFZAZVwMcSL8DFPEyjTGCygHn-kU2fD0/s1600/Khusro+II.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of the wings on the crown.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8F6p8NIm-5CryFds94T0GF4uemA2cXUYGKGe6gXMsWYdIyfFS" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="225" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8F6p8NIm-5CryFds94T0GF4uemA2cXUYGKGe6gXMsWYdIyfFS" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Sassanian era stucco with the name of "Shapur" above two wings. From: http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/Sasanian/artifacts/Stucco/sasanian_stucco.jpg</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Sassanid_silver_plate_by_Nickmard_Khoey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="791" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Sassanid_silver_plate_by_Nickmard_Khoey.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh</td></tr>
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I wonder if such representation had to be disguised when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Zoroastrians">Islamic persecution of the Zoroastrian people</a> began, that overt religious emblems such as the animals were abandoned but a single wing was retained, becoming more stylised over time until its meaning was no longer clear.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfp5ZZStu9ZWMGsjFFcnhYF2xFiEufIe8JtxkAxASmwsCWzxiWaTgQ99AhJaWlUlAtbacFsbh-gWlQ3qRIu7RkoEsJ2d9xEUXhfJLqiOAZOVV9SQwH8VjJFbUu27ksawqxb_LS16AeKgo/s1600/Simurgh-Paisley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="962" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfp5ZZStu9ZWMGsjFFcnhYF2xFiEufIe8JtxkAxASmwsCWzxiWaTgQ99AhJaWlUlAtbacFsbh-gWlQ3qRIu7RkoEsJ2d9xEUXhfJLqiOAZOVV9SQwH8VjJFbUu27ksawqxb_LS16AeKgo/s320/Simurgh-Paisley.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
My sketch showing a Simurgh from a Sassanian era stucco and the typical shape of the Paisley (buta) pattern.</div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-81521819239604379122016-12-14T03:40:00.002+00:002016-12-26T03:07:09.461+00:00BBC's "Black and British: A Forgotten History: 1. First Encounters" Burgh by Sands African heritage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The first episode of the BBC 2 series "<i>Black and British: A Forgotten History - 1. First Encounters</i>" first broadcast 9/11/2016, presented by David Olusoga (and whose book this series derives from).<br />
The first part of the episode regards how Africans were stationed at a Roman fort along "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian's_wall">Hadrian's wall</a>".<br />
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At 04:51 into the episode David introduces an Archaeologist, Richard Benjamin (<a href="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/people/seniorstaff/richard_benjamin.aspx">Dr Richard Benjamin</a>).<br />
<b>Dr Benjamin heads the "International Slavery Museum" team at National Museums, Liverpool.</b><br />
Dr Benjamin states that Roman history was a "<i>conduit for him being of a diverse backround</i>" as he is of Gayanan parentage.<br />
Dr Benjamin then shows an image of the <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/0/steps/5121">tomb slab</a> found in South Shields of a Roman by the name of Victor who was "MAVRVM" and he states "<i>so a Moor so from the north african provinces</i>".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoacb-1cjGKxP7TSsVS45nWmN_XwI3TFRTmD3iuXzdBjJvSpOrhWVdghIb59WGWcisUDraRcjqk6Drl1yoaMOGBcJCF9vqnUA21XLrcqTt4HVCTuIEC5WotqiDArTPn8B13OiUFT2YgU/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoacb-1cjGKxP7TSsVS45nWmN_XwI3TFRTmD3iuXzdBjJvSpOrhWVdghIb59WGWcisUDraRcjqk6Drl1yoaMOGBcJCF9vqnUA21XLrcqTt4HVCTuIEC5WotqiDArTPn8B13OiUFT2YgU/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Dr Benjamin then shows an image from a medieval copy of the Roman "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notitia_Dignitatum">Notitia Dignitatum</a>" of a "military unit" called the Numerus (auxillary) Maurorum Aurelianorum. Richard says the unit was "<i>named in honour of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius">Marcus Aurelius</a></i>" and who were "stationed at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aballava">Aballava</a>" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgh_by_Sands">Burgh by Sands</a> in the modern English county of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbria">Cumbria</a>).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKwcu8lmjBkzrLhc-xMSq1NiQrDvbdi0APdicd9OiLW9SHNh-ymX6WGtr9GxuCM_2xDG3zZPxVIt8N8_ywjrgFcEXlnCoVmC_pa-I7BmIjwrzDUpzB7gS_eDB2PWXl0Jpt5KnsnOWZ-A/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKwcu8lmjBkzrLhc-xMSq1NiQrDvbdi0APdicd9OiLW9SHNh-ymX6WGtr9GxuCM_2xDG3zZPxVIt8N8_ywjrgFcEXlnCoVmC_pa-I7BmIjwrzDUpzB7gS_eDB2PWXl0Jpt5KnsnOWZ-A/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>What </b><b>Dr Benjamin does not say is this is not the famous Marcus Aurelius, the stoic Emperor and of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_(2000_film)"><i>Gladiator</i></a> <i>a la <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harris">Richard Harris</a></i>" but the regnal name of an Emperor who is known to us today as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla">Caracalla</a></b>.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dr Benjamin also did not mention that the modern descendants of the Roman province of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauretania_Tingitana">Mauretania</a> are the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco">Moroccans</a>. </b></span><br />
Dr Benjamin then states "<i>the likelyhood they were brown or black, not all of them but equally people can't say to me that they weren't, that this unit were all white by the time they got here. For me personally to realise there may have been Roman soldiers, you know, two thousand years ago who may have looked like me or members of my family, that gave me a sense of identity and made me very proud</i>."<br />
<b>Dr Benjamin seems to think that those people (such as myself) who have read the Roman histories that have come down to us think everyone within the Empire was "white" when that was far from the recorded case. Its absurd.</b><br />
<b>Dr Benjamin's academic backround, his heading of the "International Slavery Museum" in Liverpool as well as his Gayanan ancestry, shaoes the agenda behind this "discovery" of Africans stationed at Aballava.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6wOtdpRGrxaZcqudJqXNhspJCVGafTpJa1w3VkQuFR7Te7yFxG72Ixxm2BlLxX2u0QfGvvWldKb9Ew8Z7CdBKssVgNt9ElstG7jaOdH5VRkDxoK9b3hsJay2RXlW6TwVCKSVYDemhHU/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6wOtdpRGrxaZcqudJqXNhspJCVGafTpJa1w3VkQuFR7Te7yFxG72Ixxm2BlLxX2u0QfGvvWldKb9Ew8Z7CdBKssVgNt9ElstG7jaOdH5VRkDxoK9b3hsJay2RXlW6TwVCKSVYDemhHU/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
David then states: "<i>After some eighteen hundred years the people of Burgh by Sands are reawakening the memory of their villagers African Roman heritage</i>."<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Going along with Dr Benjamin, David now conflates a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent">continent</a> with an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group">ethnic</a> group. </b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-LQxql2yZ1olbLpaZyCNOMgpK3966CavqpR2eoP8-IQjYzs3J4RLGtx1YwBvId70agtUjFsD4O16oveZ58PGqgdKyS_reqNBzqFmlzVRsm7NXcsKxTDgBMA0_qPrIEqwVAu5LtpVVw4/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-LQxql2yZ1olbLpaZyCNOMgpK3966CavqpR2eoP8-IQjYzs3J4RLGtx1YwBvId70agtUjFsD4O16oveZ58PGqgdKyS_reqNBzqFmlzVRsm7NXcsKxTDgBMA0_qPrIEqwVAu5LtpVVw4/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>(Aside from the racial agenda manipulation, the plaque commissioned by the BBC looks very similar to the popular, and since 2014 cancelled, Channel 4 "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Team">Time Team</a>" logo.) </b><br />
Then a local boy shows a drawing he made of "<i>Septius Servus</i>" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimius_Severus">Septimius Severus</a>) to David, he states "<i>ah this is the Emperor who we know was from north Africa</i>".<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Septimius Severus, though from north Africa (the town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptis_Magna">Leptis Magna</a>) was of Italian, Punic and maybe Libyan parentage. He was a "child" of the Empire, at a time when people who had the means to move around the provinces, did, as his parents clearly did. In his time it was loyalty to Rome that was asked whilst being free to retain a "mother tongue" and local traditions.</b></span><br />
Then the boy states "<i>It's spectacular that Romans came from Africa and this is where the Aballava fort was</i>."<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Though this sounds scripted, the use of the name Roman is correct as in 212 AD Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius) had made all free men in the Empire Roman citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin by an edict known as the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Antoniniana">Constitutio Antoniniana</a>". </b></span><br />
At 07:09 into the episode David goes into the local church, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael's_Church,_Burgh_by_Sands#Architecture">St Michael's</a>, which had resued some of the stones from the ruined fort.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaMrRdwY-TknYzoPeAk4Zl8uOOVEnw4Nz_Ax4ci4BO_75fKMxGITF_FKYMecJmeIceBsTcnPb31xa7voRget46hN2iGKk8cN-Z7W29wGg8g4kUMic97FqtaUSiblHnjLECxiOPWpn9Q4/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaMrRdwY-TknYzoPeAk4Zl8uOOVEnw4Nz_Ax4ci4BO_75fKMxGITF_FKYMecJmeIceBsTcnPb31xa7voRget46hN2iGKk8cN-Z7W29wGg8g4kUMic97FqtaUSiblHnjLECxiOPWpn9Q4/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>It is likely that when this fort was constructed in the 2nd century AD it would have been by masons within the Roman army and the hard, dangerous, work of extracting the rocks would likely have been done by slaves. <span style="font-size: large;">White slaves, likely from Britannia</span>.</b> <br />
David states: "<i>there could have been as many as 500 soldiers occupying the fortress that stood here and the culture and beliefs that they brought with them would have shaped life around the fort. Beyond the walls of the fort was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicus">Vicus</a> and this was a cilivian area. Roman soldiers were pretty well paid and so there was no shortage of traders and merchants only too happy to provide them with everything that they needed. So out there would have been bars and gambling houses and grocers and take aways and doctors and spirit guides. Now some of these merchants will have travelled across the Empire with the legions. But so perhaps would some of the families of the soldiers and they would have settled here. So what we have here at Aballava is the first community that we know of in Britain that included people from Africa</i>."<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Again, the conflation of a continent with an ethnic group, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers">Berbers</a>, whom the Mauretanians belong to. </b></span><br />
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A local girl states: "<i>it's quite amazing that a small village like Burgh by Sands can have such like big history</i>".<br />
Then an unnamed man, in front of the gates of St Michael's, states: "<i>we think about the songs the soldiers would have sung and the bed time stories told in the civilian settlement of African songs and African stories here</i>."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FAb4r3Dy3p7CdBgwEtlsLJHdLbLXDeonL4a_I5AyPTdR8K9cMUgMIl0YkpX3wqAQTi6VhdtbUOa5m5empFVP3YB3F91v4xCvbB6dgMznrTr1nAYy3EXRxTCm7D5SWTBXaworAgqS57M/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FAb4r3Dy3p7CdBgwEtlsLJHdLbLXDeonL4a_I5AyPTdR8K9cMUgMIl0YkpX3wqAQTi6VhdtbUOa5m5empFVP3YB3F91v4xCvbB6dgMznrTr1nAYy3EXRxTCm7D5SWTBXaworAgqS57M/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Once again the conflation of a continent with an ethnic group (the Berbers). If the man is ignorant of Roman history he can be excused of such a deception. </b></span><br />
David then mentions how members of the African (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa">west African</a> instead of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb">Maghrebi</a>, whom the Berbers still live) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean">Carribean</a> (mostly Jamaica and some of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Antilles">Lesser Antilles</a> islands) communities, who are said to live alongside "Hadrian's wall" today, have joined in the celebration.<br />
The priest of St Michael's then asks a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana">Ghanan</a> man by the name of Tony to do the honours of unveiling the plaque.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5bOIQTPqeWpRq1C3whjTBie5ZQ4IedUtDt2UPEcvShlvN0mWbNSGq4GBmJ5X1Q6KLO7FZ4HELoU0vECU4p5ueHx0oagIHQufpJCrLYDvBhF4iNaYhTmnexHA0Oc47nXKwpzrAevXZyQ/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5bOIQTPqeWpRq1C3whjTBie5ZQ4IedUtDt2UPEcvShlvN0mWbNSGq4GBmJ5X1Q6KLO7FZ4HELoU0vECU4p5ueHx0oagIHQufpJCrLYDvBhF4iNaYhTmnexHA0Oc47nXKwpzrAevXZyQ/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Tony states: "<i>I'm privillaged for me to unveil the plaque to say the Africans were here</i> (sic)."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArjBGDoUmK6aVfMytznheM_iMo2DTQUZH-yHVDFYkusmGhs6gKLHs8f2CINNkKbQh4hIkojs6VTrg_620GBB-ycRkGQlPqTlIVp_-EaDKo1VLTTW8pZ7T_f9ys-UQjbTasWKsPZZJeYc/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArjBGDoUmK6aVfMytznheM_iMo2DTQUZH-yHVDFYkusmGhs6gKLHs8f2CINNkKbQh4hIkojs6VTrg_620GBB-ycRkGQlPqTlIVp_-EaDKo1VLTTW8pZ7T_f9ys-UQjbTasWKsPZZJeYc/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Then a woman, unnamed, of the "local" Caribbean community states: "<i>For me what started here was the Black presence in Britain, the presence being real rather than just in a history book</i>".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGPojiGs-gwIPUqzPcb7oMtGc65rpATtYUwoOfkZYbuh2Kbgc-TaIBFyjZsmVmzWqobCtdTf8D2XrP4ILTJlgfIiw7NMafXx7CvyQ8EVPP2VxGg9TBY4QfoUXlh-BfMrxkDX6MYUhQySk/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGPojiGs-gwIPUqzPcb7oMtGc65rpATtYUwoOfkZYbuh2Kbgc-TaIBFyjZsmVmzWqobCtdTf8D2XrP4ILTJlgfIiw7NMafXx7CvyQ8EVPP2VxGg9TBY4QfoUXlh-BfMrxkDX6MYUhQySk/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Yet it was due to a "history book" called the Notitia Dignitatum that provided the evidence that a contingent of Mauretanians were based at Aballava. </b><br />
A man, unnamed, of Black African parentage, then states: "<i>in times when multicultural Britain seems to be breaking down I think its quite interesting that before the formation of Britain there were foreign African Romans working here to protect the borders. So yeah it makes me proud to be African and proud to be British</i>."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwholBVcGcrAtPajJlS5OZkrx_zmbJlbhxDzcBXqraeXJby0yWCv9l0ZWRpzU15xWVOWVaNTplXymHGPpTSEB7FDdkBKq_nDanEUJVW1evDAT4sDBv_Se-YzAKYklJS04TpxTJ-wnU7uA/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwholBVcGcrAtPajJlS5OZkrx_zmbJlbhxDzcBXqraeXJby0yWCv9l0ZWRpzU15xWVOWVaNTplXymHGPpTSEB7FDdkBKq_nDanEUJVW1evDAT4sDBv_Se-YzAKYklJS04TpxTJ-wnU7uA/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>(He doesn't state what aspects of multicultural Britain are "breaking down" or why he could not have been proud before of being African until this event. Ultimately we are all Africans since it is where humanity origanted from.) </b></span><br />
<b>After Caracalla's edict the Mauretanians could no longer be classed as "foreign" or even "African". They were Romans. But he can be excused if he is ignorant of Roman history but airing this ignorance on the BBC pushes an erroneous agenda.</b><br />
Tony then states "<i>I was so pleased that African army brought the children African songs. So the children we promise you if you want to learn many African songs let us know and I will teach you</i> (sic)." Tony then gets some of the white villagers to take part in a rendition of a Ghanan song and chant out the words "<a href="http://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2014/02/che-che-koolay.html"><i>che che kulay</i></a>" a few times whilst holding their hands to their heads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXNewzYEgUbGAuFHhTiLu5LhKTyvxYYvnOANCqB54sQfsC5iSNAfj1u4g2222H-MYHIKcb5-enIYjdZrjjwJf8SiMslkHS0XySzHdNsmaWZKgS1BOgo2RGcyeXf_FC9rgyv4tJ80YGAI/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXNewzYEgUbGAuFHhTiLu5LhKTyvxYYvnOANCqB54sQfsC5iSNAfj1u4g2222H-MYHIKcb5-enIYjdZrjjwJf8SiMslkHS0XySzHdNsmaWZKgS1BOgo2RGcyeXf_FC9rgyv4tJ80YGAI/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Great fun but it obscures the supposed aim of the event, commemorating the contingent of Mauretanians who, according to this episode, had been forgotten about and were based at Aballava. Their Berber songs would have been different to the Ghanan songs. </b></div>
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<b>If truth had been the objective of this event the BBC could have arranged for a representative of the Moroccan community in Britain to come along, unveil the plaque and teach the locals a Berber song.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Maybe for the BBC, Moroccans are not a suitable "African" representation for their program? </b></span></div>
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At 10:20 into the episode the unnamed woman who was supervising the fitting of the plaque to the gate of St Michael's church then states that she is "<i>fourth generation in the village, Cumbria we go back to the eleven hundreds but not as, not as (sic) far as the Black history that we have revealed today. This is now part of our story in a very real special way</i>."</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8ERQhN2HiNSKfsB2SRqokfU0H0V9KsFECgOBxTEMkuNwy_J5_E74hofdmrkPILuWh9kE35bvWeinAP5eyXzO0rINm_qaFqE_bktf2ao04pAtEbfzaTV9-KXlTGCF7sd9MtMDnmGG8Tc/s1600/BBC+black+history+bs+17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8ERQhN2HiNSKfsB2SRqokfU0H0V9KsFECgOBxTEMkuNwy_J5_E74hofdmrkPILuWh9kE35bvWeinAP5eyXzO0rINm_qaFqE_bktf2ao04pAtEbfzaTV9-KXlTGCF7sd9MtMDnmGG8Tc/s320/BBC+black+history+bs+17.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>She may consider herself English but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_Ogledd">Cumbrians</a> predate the Roman invasion and are related to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_people">Welsh</a>. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">If this woman is ignorant of British history she can be excused, but from what she stated it seems an intentional, misleading, statement by her or even scripted for her to read from an autocue by those behind this program. If truth had been the aim of the event and a Moroccan representative had been invited to unveil the plaque it would have been interesting what they would have been their reaction to be simply labelled as "Black". </span> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Africa is a continent, of a diverse number of ethnic groups rather than one ethnic group and this fact should have been recognised rather than obfuscated to fit an agenda. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>However, an agenda it does seem to be, pushed by the likes of Dr Benjamin. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A further example of obfuscation is the other ethnic groups who had been based at Aballava that were not </b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>mentioned</b></span>, such as the "First Ala of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungri">Tungrorum</a>" who were Germans, stationed there in the second century as well as a mixed cavalry regiment called the "First Cohort of Nerva’s Own Germans". </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>There was a detachment of mounted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisians">Frisians</a> (who still live in the modern Netherlands) stationed at Aballava along with the Mauretanians in the third century. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>I doubt the BBC will commission a program about the Arab heritage of South Shields, via the Roman fort of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeia">Arbeia</a>. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Yet such a subject ("Arabs in the western world") is the "hot topic" of today rather than the "Black v White" issue in the UK that really reached a cresendo in the 1970s.</b></span><br />
Concluding that part of the episode David states: "<i>I think if you ask most people to guess where the first African encounters between Britons and Africans took place they wouldn't guess that it was in this tiny Cumbrian village. And I think if you asked the same people to guess when that encounter took place they wouldn't dream that it was nearly eighteen centuries ago. But the people of this village are genuinely proud and excited that their village and the African Romans who were stationed here are the first chapter in this long history</i>."<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Roman Africans, David. Roman was their citizenship, thanks to the Italo-Punic-maybe Libyan-Syrian Emperor, Marcus Aurelius II a.k.a Caracalla. They were not ethnic Italian. Didn't you explain that?</b></span></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-80782127059577106502016-03-05T02:16:00.002+00:002016-03-05T02:16:46.838+00:00Young Claudius?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre">Louvre Museum</a>, Paris, is a statue titled "young boy wearing a Toga, dated to the 1st century AD". It was aquired by the Museum from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Borghese">Borghese</a> collection.<br />
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I was fortunate to visit the Museum in May 2014 and though short for time I took as many photos as I could of what Roman statues I came across.<br />
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Recently looking through the photos I took I noticed some traits of the statue of the "young boy wearing a Toga".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYiwDLUY0sf5NcS3_LGwDXyf33gl6lLuj2p26aEeTXJJtblJeva8dHUgy0STgmIpgR1GWU2Rqxdw25FfFqeHXyBiponJSYJQPPgZIhCXcAn4iwFB4Bdb4VOmQ_VKI8b1S91trSo7H5mGU/s1600/Young+Claudius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYiwDLUY0sf5NcS3_LGwDXyf33gl6lLuj2p26aEeTXJJtblJeva8dHUgy0STgmIpgR1GWU2Rqxdw25FfFqeHXyBiponJSYJQPPgZIhCXcAn4iwFB4Bdb4VOmQ_VKI8b1S91trSo7H5mGU/s320/Young+Claudius.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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The ears of the statue have been damaged and would originally have been larger. And "protruding".<br />
The head of the statue is inclined to the right.<br />
The neck of the statue is longer than average.<br />
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Having read about the Emperor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius">Claudius</a>, his physical traits and his condition (recently thought to be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy">Cerebral palsy</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome">Tourette syndrome</a>).<br />
One of the traits the historian Suetonius' described about Claudius (in his work "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Caesars">De Vita Caesarum</a>" written in 121 AD) is how Claudius' head would shake.<br />
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In most of the statues of Emperor Claudius, his traits (long neck, "protruding" ears) are depicted.<br />
Obviously the Imperial sculptors made the Emperor Claudius look as athletic, heroic and "perfect" as possible (as they did when depicting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus">Augustus</a> for example), avoiding showing his head at an incline or his ears in a realistic size.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Claudius_Gabies_Louvre_Ma1231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Claudius_Gabies_Louvre_Ma1231.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Claudius_Gabies_Louvre_Ma1231.jpg</td></tr>
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So I put forward my theory on this unattributed sculpture in Louvre Museum for your consideration.<br />
<span class="st"><em></em> </span></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-55606385728130393172015-08-30T00:58:00.001+01:002017-01-09T00:33:50.144+00:00Bust of Gordian I or Aurelian?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Gordian_I_Musei_Capitolini_MC475.jpg/220px-Gordian_I_Musei_Capitolini_MC475.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Gordian_I_Musei_Capitolini_MC475.jpg/220px-Gordian_I_Musei_Capitolini_MC475.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, attributed as Gordian I. From Wikipedia Commons.</td></tr>
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The bust attributed to Gordian I in the <span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Capitoline Museums at Rome bears little resemblance to his depiction in his coins.</span><br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Sestertius_Gordian_I-s2385.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Sestertius_Gordian_I-s2385.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">It looks far more like Aurelian and matches his depiction on his coins, below are some examples I have owned.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIAmaUysuE0ojJHYBxC2VMbbLNZDu0CvnqWYliECrrZTvdKgsdFp-s4uuOj2WrF0je_f9LrKV-279-QDPNohbJDecHYASOkkne3YOfBTtDGHzrXCBGERoCtJtvELk_iMiCXkvOkzC-Z4/s1600/Aurelian+RIC+V%252C+I+347+Cyzicus+Second+example.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIAmaUysuE0ojJHYBxC2VMbbLNZDu0CvnqWYliECrrZTvdKgsdFp-s4uuOj2WrF0je_f9LrKV-279-QDPNohbJDecHYASOkkne3YOfBTtDGHzrXCBGERoCtJtvELk_iMiCXkvOkzC-Z4/s320/Aurelian+RIC+V%252C+I+347+Cyzicus+Second+example.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">AE Antoninianus of Aurelian, mint of Cyzicus. RIC V, I 347, 272-273 A.D.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_dSW9zswpQJE3ueybbdiVbiFwvxmjaQ9RJU7oxPUCCuR-ioM66F_lQHUpIhXbAd66H3VpdlCIWqg00MGivc8I9i3lHMO7CPTdQ_N_w-Yj_Zh9hygPM9DK2oTnIv7jhAUgJSN81bn8zY/s1600/Aurelian+R.I.C.+V%252C+part+I%252C+Cyzicus+349+variation+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_dSW9zswpQJE3ueybbdiVbiFwvxmjaQ9RJU7oxPUCCuR-ioM66F_lQHUpIhXbAd66H3VpdlCIWqg00MGivc8I9i3lHMO7CPTdQ_N_w-Yj_Zh9hygPM9DK2oTnIv7jhAUgJSN81bn8zY/s320/Aurelian+R.I.C.+V%252C+part+I%252C+Cyzicus+349+variation+c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AE Antoninianus of Aurelian, mint of Cyzicus. RIC V, I 349 variation, 272-273 A.D.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqW8UcX_TJKbMloofenZp6kbGN8hlu3cU0k4eJB91EQ-iKQmmShzov1xVLxZ1GMjEUfyFBqHIOz02nfih2-Ya4e2J0pYwGqYCBSvtct6nGzULZb4m5EtQtc3_C8Sx8o772KVgVth0Xo8/s1600/Aurelian+RIC+V%252C+I+349+variation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqW8UcX_TJKbMloofenZp6kbGN8hlu3cU0k4eJB91EQ-iKQmmShzov1xVLxZ1GMjEUfyFBqHIOz02nfih2-Ya4e2J0pYwGqYCBSvtct6nGzULZb4m5EtQtc3_C8Sx8o772KVgVth0Xo8/s320/Aurelian+RIC+V%252C+I+349+variation.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">AE Antoninianus of Aurelian, mint of Cyzicus. RIC V, I 349 variation, 272-273 A.D. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></span><span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8a/9e/92/8a9e922687eae0b688a2b3c563137382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8a/9e/92/8a9e922687eae0b688a2b3c563137382.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side view of "Gordian I" bust from Pinterest.com https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/439171401147899267/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_I">Gordian I </a>reigned for 36 days from around April - May, in 238 AD.</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">As Emperor he never set foot in Rome.</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">(The "Gordian I bust also bears no resemblance to Gordian II, son of Gordian I. He was always depicted bald on his coinage. Like his father he never set foot in Rome as Emperor, "reigning" for around three weeks, 22 March - 12 April 238 AD and was killed outside Carthage leading local troops against the third Legion Augusta.)</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Gordian I was 79 years old when he committed suicide, after his son was defeated and killed outside Carthage. Whilst it could be thought the "Gordian I" bust depicts him in his prime instead of at age 79 (just as Augustus, 27 BC-14 AD, only had busts issued that showed him in his prime), taking into account the other mentioned factors, this being a bust of him is unlikely. </span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian">Aurelian</a> reigned from September 270 AD - September 275 AD.</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">As Emperor he not only set foot in Rome but ordered the construction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Walls">walls</a> that bear his name.</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Yet there is no known bust of Aurelian.</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">The style of the bust would conform to that of the late 3rd century.</span></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-18812462491140134372015-07-21T01:42:00.003+01:002015-07-21T01:43:05.493+01:00Mosaic of "Alexander the Great"?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/07/14/16/2A86E7C000000578-0-image-a-6_1436889408838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/07/14/16/2A86E7C000000578-0-image-a-6_1436889408838.jpg" height="320" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3161093/Mosaic-Alexander-Great-meeting-Jewish-priest-non-biblical-scene-discovered-inside-synagogue.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3161093/Mosaic-Alexander-Great-meeting-Jewish-priest-non-biblical-scene-discovered-inside-synagogue.html</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3161093/Mosaic-Alexander-Great-meeting-Jewish-priest-non-biblical-scene-discovered-inside-synagogue.html">A mosaic found</a> in the remains of a 5th century Synagogue in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huqoq">Huqoq</a>, Israel, is thought to show Alexander the Great.<br />
<br />
<br />
To me, the man depicted looks more like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_%28emperor%29">Julian the Apostate</a>.<br />
<br />
"<i><b>Battle elephants were associated with Greek armies beginning with Alexander the Great, so this might be a depiction of a Jewish legend about the meeting between Alexander and the Jewish high priest</b></i>" ~ Professor Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina.<br />
<br />
So it is not definitely Alexander the Great.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Samarra">Battle Elephants also comprised the Persian army that defeated and killed Julian the Apostate.</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ff/fb/ff/fffbff40233bfd5ab54bbfd0c2cd6f0e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ff/fb/ff/fffbff40233bfd5ab54bbfd0c2cd6f0e.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Above image from Pinterest. From "<a href="https://ospreypublishing.com/sassanian-elite-cavalry-ad-224-642">Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224 - 642</a>" by Dr. Kaveh Farrokh, illustrated by the late Andrew McBride. Osprey Publishing.</td></tr>
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<br />
Julian was blonde and as Emperor, bearded, as shown in the AE2 coin from the Antioch mint below:<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/JulianusII-antioch(360-363)-CNG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/JulianusII-antioch(360-363)-CNG.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_%28emperor%29#Attempt_to_rebuild_the_Jewish_Temple">More importantly, regarding the Jews, he favoured them.</a><br />
<br />
Note also the imperial purple robe the man is wearing in the mosaic.<br />
<br />
So a depiction of Alexander the Great, from around 332 BC when he was campaigning in the Levant against the Persians or Julian the Apostate, from around 361 AD when he was campaigning in the Levant and Mesopotamia against the Persians?</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-32299375680951186872015-05-03T01:01:00.001+01:002015-05-03T01:01:06.088+01:00The inconvenient truth of Benny Ziffer's "convenient kitsch" take on the Armenian Genocide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After reading <a href="https://www.blogger.com/You%20can%20learn%20about%20this%20%22journalist%22%20here:%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Ziffer">Benny Ziffer</a>'s opinion, on <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.654358?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook">Haaretz online</a>, that the Armenian Genocide is mere<br />
"<b><i>self-righteous and convenient kitsch of national victimization</i></b>" I thought to go over what he has scribbled:<br />
<br />
"<i>I refer to what’s known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide">Armenian holocaust</a>, which in the end did not receive supreme, official recognition as genocide from U.S. President Barack Obama.</i>"<br />Your opinon is your own. Ethnic cleansing on that scale is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide">Genocide</a>.<br /><br />" <i>It’s a signal to other nations, too, that postmodernism has gone out of fashion, and with it all the widespread inanities that can describe every tragic event in history as a “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust">Shoah</a>.” More specifically, I mean what’s known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus">Nakba</a>, which in my view is also no more than a salient product of postmodernism.</i>"<br />Your hatred of the natives who were forced from their homes does not validate ignoring Ethnic Cleansing in other countries.<br /><br />"<i>What we find, then, despite the many lovers of Armenia in our midst, is that logic and common sense have not yet vanished completely from the world. A modicum of sanity persists, and with it the ability to distinguish between nuances that postmodernism tried to blur.</i>"<br />Yes, mere "nuances". When Hitler said "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obersalzberg_Speech#The_Armenian_quote"><b>Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?</b></a>" it was just a "<i>nuance</i>" I guess.<br /><br />"<i>In short, the mortal blow that all the world’s self-righteous types hoped Obama would deliver to Turkey on the centenary of the Armenian tragedy boomeranged on them. And I, from both the personal and family viewpoints, as the son of Jews from Turkey, am especially happy about this.</i>"<br />Not all of the world could bother what Obama said. What the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide_recognition#Developments_since_2000">E.U. Parliament said and what the Pope said</a> is equally if not more important in that they were well thought out than simply done to get votes.<br /><br />"<i>There is no other country – with the possible exception of the United States – that rescued Jews and Judaism as did Turkey, both in the distant past, when it took in the exiles from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree">Spain</a>, and during World War II. It’s true that during the latter period the government imposed anti-Semitic decrees on Jews, but of a negligible character compared to the suffering experienced by their brethren elsewhere.</i>"<br />The Sultans used the Jews as money lenders since this is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury">prohibited in Islam and traditional Christianity</a>. Not because they loved Jews.<br />You are deluded if you thought Turkey was Neutral in WWII. Had things gone Hitler's way the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_al-Husseini#Recruitment">Islamic Brigades</a> in his army would have carried out massacres of Jews in Palestine and Turkey.<br /><br />"<i>I feel that I am speaking now from the mouth of my late father: He and his family were saved from the Shoah thanks to Turkey, which received them as stateless refugees and afforded them the possibility to earn a living and acquire an education. Whenever the <b>Armenian issue</b> arose, my father would become boiling mad. The last time someone tried to argue with him about the subject, he simply threw him out of the house. In my younger days, I was upset at his one-sided viewpoint, but today I identify with it completely.</i>"<br />Your father seems to have had an interest in keeping in line with the official verdict of the Turkish Regime since the Regime had given him refuge.<br /><br />"<i>He told me about the terrible <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sarikamish">battle of Sarikamish</a>, when acts of sabotage by pro-Russian Armenian militias cut off the Ottoman army’s supply lines to the eastern front. This was at the height of the harsh winter of December 1914 and January 1915</i>."<br />Note "Ottoman <b>army</b>". It was a military conflict, they lost. <b>That is war</b>.<br /><br />"<i>Tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers and civilians froze to death or were cut down then in a hopeless battle against the Russian army, which enjoyed the active aid of Armenian nationalists, who were under the illusion that Greater Armenia would be established with the help of the Allied powers in territories of eastern Turkey. What the Armenians want to see recognized as genocide is the violent Turkish reaction in the wake of that wretched campaign, a response which to this day is perceived by the Turks as part of a battle for their homeland.</i>"<br />So in that sense, you think also Hitler and his Nazis were just having a "violent reaction" to the Jews for the 1920/30s Depression?<br />So that is why Armenians who lived <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide#/media/File:Armenian_Genocide_Map-en.svg">on the Aegean Coast or Thracia</a> were also deemed a risk, likely to join the Russians? Get real.<br /><br />"<i>Two years ago, at the Haifa Film Festival, I saw the Turkish film “The Long Way Home,” directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphan_E%C5%9Feli">Alphan Eseli</a>. It tells the story of what befell some Turkish refugees who survived the devastation of Sarikamish. Along with scenes of horror in which people eat the flesh of other people in that brutal winter, there are magnificent manifestations of humanity and sacrifice. National memories of this kind cannot be erased just because of the relativism of postmodernism.</i>"<br />You think a Turkish Regime sanctioned film is unbiased?<br /><br />"<i>All of the above is meant to convey an optimistic message: that there are still a few responsible adults in this world, including in Israel, who have not surrendered to the self-righteous and convenient kitsch of national victimization and are capable of setting limits to it. In my mind’s eye, I see my father saluting there, above the clouds, to the president of the United States, who this week in large measure spared the enlightened world an unnecessary historical mockery.</i> "<br />So this year's commemorations of the Liberation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp">Bergen-Belsen Camp</a> on 26th April 2015 would also be "<i>self-righteous and convenient kitsch of national victimization</i>"?<br />
Your fathers fears and need to tow the Turkish Regime's line on the Armenian Genocide are neither an excuse to ignore facts or to insult the millions of Armenians and Greeks and Assyrians around the world whose family suffered the things you term "<i>kitsch</i>" such as theft, rape, denial of identity by enslavement and/or conversion to Islam and also, murder.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-56599565820784154812015-03-08T17:53:00.000+00:002015-03-20T16:19:21.383+00:00The "Wings of Ahura Mazda" perpetuated in the design of the Armenian Khatchkar and other East Christian Crosses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<u><b>Introduction</b></u><br />
<br />
Back in 2010 I had the opportunity to visit the Republic of Armenia.<br />
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<br />
One of the places I visited was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aparan_Basilica">Church of Surp Nshan</a> (Holy Seal) in the town of Aparan in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragatsotn_Province">Aragatsotn province</a>.<br />
The Basilica, imbued with the piety of the worshippers that I saw on the Sunday I visited (21/11/10) had some very old stone sculptures in the vicinity.<br />
One of the sculptures that caught my eye had a Cross within a circle, with two figures to either side. <a href="http://understanding-our-past.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/drafsh-emblem.html">I wrote about this in 2011</a>.<br />
As mentioned in that article, it seemed in style to resemble the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire">Sasanian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derafsh_Kaviani">Drafsh</a>.<br />
<br />
Aside from that example, I visited other sites in the Republic of Armenia that year (one of which was Dsegh mentioned in part 1) and in 2011 and encountered other examples of Crosses of a "Drafsh style" and further, were upon Wings.<br />
<br />
What is the significance of Wings on such an emblem?<br />
<br />
Its significance was clear to me from having read the book published by Osprey, "<a href="https://ospreypublishing.com/rome-039-s-enemies-3-pb"><i>Rome's Enemies (3) Parthians and Sassanid Persians</i></a>" by Peter Wilcox with superb illustrations by the late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_McBride">Angus McBride</a>.<br />
Both on its cover and inside is shown a Plate by Angus with a Sasanian cavalryman carrying a Drafsh. It has Wings on it, said to represent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda">Ahura Mazda</a>, and is surmounted with a Sun upon a Crescent.<br />
The Standard (Drafsh) is said to be of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fars_Province">Fars</a>, the heartland of the Sasanian dynasty.<br />
<br />
Since my teenage years I had been aware of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachkar">Khatchkar</a> and its own significance in Armenian culture, how even after the Armenian community would have gone, these edifices would somehow survive to testify of the culture that made it. Of course such edifices cannot resist well planned destruction as was meted out to the remaining <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_cemetery_in_Julfa">Armenian Khatchkars of Julfa</a>, now part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, by its own soldiery.<br />
Seeing such early depictions of a Cross and ones with Wings, I began to realise that the "<u>stereotypical</u>" Khatchkar we Armenians think of, with its rich interlacing framing an ornate Cross with what to me looked like "<i>flourishes</i>" under the Cross, had evolved from these early depictions I had seen. The "<i>flourishes</i>" on the early examples were depicted as Wings.<br />
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<u><b>Part 1</b></u><br />
In August of 2010 I went with my cousin and his friends on a very quick, unplanned, tour around the Aragatsotn province, stopping at a site for ten minutes on average.<br />
<br />
One of the places we visited the Church of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughni">Mughni</a>.<br />
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Due to the tour being spur-of-the moment I only had my Mobile Phone to take photos with.<br />
<br />
Below is a photo I took on my phone showing a section of a Pillar, outside the Church of Mughni.<br />
Also a sketch I made of the Pillar, with the basic shape shown in grey with the Cross/Drafsh shown in black. Itself is upon a Pedestal which also has a Cross/Drafsh on it. Both are hewn from a dark coloured Tufa.<br />
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Later that year, in November, I visited the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Province">Lori province</a>.<br />
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One of the places visited was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dsegh">Dsegh</a>.<br />
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In this remote region we walked for a while and then came across an very old cemetery with a few ancient monuments still standing.<br />
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This one, according to the <a href="http://hushardzan.am/2883/">Armenian Ministry of Culture</a>'s website as well as the <a href="http://sosculture.eu/index.php?id=39&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=247&cHash=7dd46310101dbf47ba7dfeeeaa81052d">SOSCulture</a> website, is dated to between the 5th - 7th centuries yet it has an inscription on its southern side dated to the 13th century in the name of an unchronicled "Vahram <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamikonian">Mamikonian</a>". A Khatchkar nearby, dated to the 13th century, is said in both websites to have been sculpted by a "master Vahram". Very confusing. There was a "Prince Mamikonian" who ruled the area in the 13th century. The reference both in the Armenian Ministry of Culture and SOSCulture websites to a "master Vahram" for the 13th century Khatchkar may be that it is dedicated to the Prince and what is insribed on the 5th - 7th monument may be attempting to link it to his family. <b>Suffice to say, the monument that interests us is offically dated to between the 5th - 7th centuries.</b><br />
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<br />
This is a close up of the Cross of the base. Note how like the Pillar at Mugni, this Cross/Drafsh is on a three-stepped base and also has a "Latin" type Cross like the Pedestal of the Mughni monument.<br />
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<br />
In 2011 I again visited the Republic of Armenia.<br />
<br />
One of the places I visited was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talin">Talin</a> and its ancient Cathedral.<br />
There was also a small <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Talin#Kamsarakan_S._Astvatsatsin_Church">Chapel</a>, dedicated to the "Mother of God" and was built either in 639 or 689 AD by Prince Nerseh <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamsarakan">Kamsarakan</a>.<br />
Outside the Chapel there a monument, made from a dark Tufa, with the base restored, one of the sides depicts Mary with Jesus, surrounded by Angels.<br />
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This may be a tomb as well as a monument, perhaps to Nerseh. On one side of the pillar is depicted a man, wearing a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaftan">Kaftan</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokha">Chokha</a>.<br />
His costume and manner is similar to the depiction of King <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyaxares">Cyaxares</a> at his tomb in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyaxares#Qyzqapan">Qizqapan</a> (Surdash, Dukan district, As Sulaymaniyah province, Autonomous Kurdish Region, Iraq).<br />
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Hardly likely a fluke that they are depicted in a similar way, even if 1,200 years seperated them.<br />
The Kamsarakan were of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthia">Parthian</a> origin. An Iranian people.<br />
Cyaxares was king of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes">Medes</a>, an Iranian people. What we see is Nerseh, proud of his roots and a wish to be depicted in a traditional manner.<br />
<br />
There is more depicted on this monument outside the Chapel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7TzXyYh1U5ahs7MxNqwWXaqJXDQ-OTgcogc9pECamABcST_1p8zJpmnny_4rtuPeZTprrbIoHtn58CpVxdqST4z_Xm79WcmOVMCcEtF4VUJ4_vb9MCwW_VrAhnbDexU8gg9xd4YC5-g/s1600/Talin+Nerseh+Chapel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7TzXyYh1U5ahs7MxNqwWXaqJXDQ-OTgcogc9pECamABcST_1p8zJpmnny_4rtuPeZTprrbIoHtn58CpVxdqST4z_Xm79WcmOVMCcEtF4VUJ4_vb9MCwW_VrAhnbDexU8gg9xd4YC5-g/s1600/Talin+Nerseh+Chapel.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Here we again see a Cross with two Wings under it, very like the example on the 5th- 7th century Dsegh Cemetery monument.</div>
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<br />
<u><b>Part 2</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What is the significance of two Wings and why under the Cross?</div>
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We saw in"<i>Rome's Enemies (3) Parthians and Sassanid Persians</i>" by Peter Wilcox and Angus McBride the "Standard of Fars" on the cover, being carried by a Sasanian cavalryman.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrau_II">Khusro II</a> wore a crown that bore two Wings with a Star upon a Crescent, obviously the "Standard of Fars", seen on all his coins.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhJjncPd4M9fK99BQTv_12RlS6_mro6SWIKSXLfclDfzhH5skXhDewUXqnzQjfJG2k_iIsRZh6u7bjxzypqz8ywknfE5KAuo1UD7_n9Oym9vyFZAZVwMcSL8DFPEyjTGCygHn-kU2fD0/s1600/Khusro+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhJjncPd4M9fK99BQTv_12RlS6_mro6SWIKSXLfclDfzhH5skXhDewUXqnzQjfJG2k_iIsRZh6u7bjxzypqz8ywknfE5KAuo1UD7_n9Oym9vyFZAZVwMcSL8DFPEyjTGCygHn-kU2fD0/s1600/Khusro+II.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
Below is a Stucco decoration with the name of a Sasanian King upon a Crescent on two Wings. The name, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_scripts#Sasanian_Pahlavi">Sasanian Pahlavi</a>, is Shapur. There were four Kings with that name (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_I">Shapur I</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_II">II</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_III">III</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_IV">IV</a>). However, since Shapur II reigned the longest (309-379) it is likely from his reign.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8F6p8NIm-5CryFds94T0GF4uemA2cXUYGKGe6gXMsWYdIyfFS" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8F6p8NIm-5CryFds94T0GF4uemA2cXUYGKGe6gXMsWYdIyfFS" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/Sasanian/artifacts/Stucco/sasanian_stucco.jpg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A stucco roundel of a Ram, from the Sasanian era found in the ancient city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_(Sumer)">Kish</a> in Iraq. The Ram was associated with the god of Victory, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verethragna">Verethragna</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ba/27/5b/ba275b4be3c575ed3fa040c32671d507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ba/27/5b/ba275b4be3c575ed3fa040c32671d507.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/145593000429162639/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Below is a drawing I made of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asv%C4%81r%C4%81n#Drafsh">Drafsh</a> shown in a fragment of a Wall Hanging depicting figures in Persian Dress, dated to the late 6th–early 7th centuries AD. Made in the Eastern Mediterranean. Now housed in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benaki_Museum">Benaki Museum</a>, Athens.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/cl/web-large/isl1625a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/cl/web-large/isl1625a.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/byzantium-and-islam/blog/topical-essays/posts/sasanians</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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So the Wings represent Ahura Mazda, the "Standard of Fars" was totemic of the Sasanian dynasty and their firm adherence to the worship of Ahura Mazda above any other deity.<br />
<br />
To try and make some dative sense of these examples:<br />
The example of the "<i>Stucco of Shapur</i>", above, dates either from:<br />
<b>240-272</b> (Shapur I) or <b>309-379</b> (Shapur II) or <b>383-388</b> (Shapur III) or <b>420</b> (Shapur IV)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Khusro II was the first Sasanian king to wear the "Standard of Fars" on his coinage.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
His reign was from <b>590 - 628</b> AD.</div>
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The Drafsh shown in the textile from the Benaki museum, dated to between <b>580 - 620</b> AD (late 6th–early 7th centuries) and likely to be from the reign of Khusro II and may be a variation of the "Standard of Fars".</div>
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The fragment of a pillar outside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Gevork_Monastery_of_Mughni">Church of Saint George</a> in Mughni, is likely <b>older than the Church</b> (dated to the 14th Century) from its archaic style. It may or may not have come from its vicinity. <b>The Wings look like Wings, with little stylisation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Dsegh Cemetery monument (or tomb) is offically dated to between the 5th- 7th centuries.<b> </b><br />
<b>The Wings still look like Wings, with some slight stylisation.</b> </div>
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The monument (or tomb) dedicated by Prince Nerseh Kamsarakan is dated to either <b>639</b> or <b>689</b> AD.</div>
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<b>The Wings have taken on some stylisation, they have a "flourish" to them. </b></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Why are these ancient Crosses in the Republic of Armenia using Sasanian emblemology?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<u><b>Part 3</b></u><br />
The said <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_the_Illuminator#Declaration_of_Christianity_in_Armenia">Christianisation of Armenia</a> is given as the year 301 AD, and this would post-date the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artabanus_V_of_Parthia#Struggle_for_supremacy_in_Iran">fall of the Arsacids in Iran</a> to the Sasanians in 224 AD. Therefore all the Crosses that are depicted with Wings would date from the Sasanian era.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The two Wings would become very stylised in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachkar">Khatchkar</a> designs of subsequent centuries, with their meaning perhaps being lost in the process.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Some examples:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A Khatchkar from the vicinity of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Gayane_Church">Church of Saint Gayane</a>. The Church was founded in <b>630</b> AD. However in comparison to the Khatchkar of Nerseh Kamsarakan (<b>639 - 689</b> AD) the Wings on this Khatchkar are stylised.</div>
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<br /></div>
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A Khatchkar from inside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruchavank">Cathedral of Aruch</a>, dated to between 661-682 AD.<br />
Note the similarity of the "<i>Ribbons</i>" under the Wings to the those on the Stucco Ram in Part 2.</div>
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A Khatchkar from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadivank">Dadivank Monastery Complex</a>. Said to have been founded by Saint Thaddeus in the 1st century, the actual complex was built between the 9th and 13th centuries.</div>
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Note how the Wings have become stylised.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbTtNJ6-9fgJrbPq7k82rgKgkLr-hZ8JfPuVTHU2PG8DKtyCIB_PLti9Ju6dH2z_O3PdjJv3y0avn7IUDPLQoXhZAQLa_pDWea9Gcr_mwrC5fiuVfhTLZ2XoDXMK5dsmJ10IdFJ-Df3o/s1600/Dadivank+Khtachkar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbTtNJ6-9fgJrbPq7k82rgKgkLr-hZ8JfPuVTHU2PG8DKtyCIB_PLti9Ju6dH2z_O3PdjJv3y0avn7IUDPLQoXhZAQLa_pDWea9Gcr_mwrC5fiuVfhTLZ2XoDXMK5dsmJ10IdFJ-Df3o/s1600/Dadivank+Khtachkar.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Three Khatchkars from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noratus_cemetery">Noratus cemetry</a> complex. Though it dates at least to the 10th century most of the Khatchkars date from the 16th century when the region was under the control of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid_dynasty">Safavid Persian Empire</a>.<br />
Note the elaborate designs, the Wings have become plant like.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmEifKC1flizvPmlMZ4kwUuzEpvWMc81s3hOMPOKaCrtEtNgnVfxd6Ta2DSFYhUEGSrUb6Z1cuVrmbfIctGxg-tGeL12PLKMRQ7Yz39yuv1g-7LyeTlqCDVLd4FXTgBruE4hiWWgm7nk/s1600/Noratus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmEifKC1flizvPmlMZ4kwUuzEpvWMc81s3hOMPOKaCrtEtNgnVfxd6Ta2DSFYhUEGSrUb6Z1cuVrmbfIctGxg-tGeL12PLKMRQ7Yz39yuv1g-7LyeTlqCDVLd4FXTgBruE4hiWWgm7nk/s1600/Noratus.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
What these examples show is a gradual stylisation of the Wings through the centuries as the original meaning of them is forgotten.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
The East Syriac and Nestorian Churches also have examples of Crosses with "Wings" under them.<br />
It is worth noting that these Churches had been for the most part developed and spread in the Sasanian Empire.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Kottakkavu_Sliva_founded_by_Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth.jpg/640px-Kottakkavu_Sliva_founded_by_Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Kottakkavu_Sliva_founded_by_Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth.jpg/640px-Kottakkavu_Sliva_founded_by_Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth.jpg" height="320" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Persian Cross in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth">Mar Thoma</a> Church of North Paravur in Kerala.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Above is what is known as a "Persian Cross" that is said to have been carved by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_Sabor_and_Mar_Proth">Mar (Saint) Sabor and Mar Proth</a>, two East Syriac Monks who arrived, by invitation, in the southern Indian Kingdom of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kollam">Quilon</a> in 825 AD. More can be read about them by clicking the link to the Wikipedia page to save digressing. This style, in a circle, is similar to the Cross outside the Basilica of Surp Nshan mentioned in the introduction and also on the Pillar in the vicinity of Mughni Church. An example is shown below of a similar Cross, this is from what is known as the "<i>Main Church</i>" of the ancient city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra">Petra</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nabataea.net/Photos/church3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://nabataea.net/Photos/church3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://nabataea.net/church.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Whilst the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language">Aramaic</a> was the language of Petra, the city, in its time under Christianity, was ruled by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire">Roman Empire</a>.<br />
In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etchmiadzin_Cathedral">Cathedral of Etchmiadzin</a> in the Republic of Armenia is a very early Christian sculpture, with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language">Greek</a> verses, showing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho">Chi-Rho</a> within a circle.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Etchmiadzin_Cathedral_cross_relief_with_Greek_inscriptions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Etchmiadzin_Cathedral_cross_relief_with_Greek_inscriptions.png" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
Until the year 405 AD, when it got <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_alphabet">its own Alphabet</a>, the Kingdom of Armenia used either Aramaic or Greek for its inscriptions. So this relic in Etchmiadzin might date no later than 405 AD.<br />
The circle is likely a stylised <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreath#Ancient_Greece_and_Rome">Wreath</a>. An example below shows a Roman Ivory carving, circa 350 AD with the Chi-Rho within a Wreath. In pre-Christian Greece and Rome the Wreath signified Victory. (Note also the two Doves to either side in both the Etchmiadzin and Ivory carving examples.)<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Anastasis_Pio_Christiano_Inv31525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Anastasis_Pio_Christiano_Inv31525.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
In the same region of India where the "Persian Cross" is to be found, the Cross that is known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_crosses_of_India#Saint_Thomas_Cross">Saint Thomas Cross</a> is very common.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Mar_Thoma_Sliva.jpg/640px-Mar_Thoma_Sliva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Mar_Thoma_Sliva.jpg/640px-Mar_Thoma_Sliva.jpg" height="320" width="276" /></a></div>
<br />
The Wings have become two Lotus Flowers in "a nod" to the dominant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion">Vedic religion</a> of the region as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism">Buddhism</a>. Also the Ribbon seen on the Stucco Ram and Cross of Aruch has become stylised.<br />
Note also how it is upon a three stepped base, as seen in the Cross/Drafsh of Mughni and Dsegh in the Republic of Armenia in Part 1.<br />
Though this Christian activity in Kerala seems to date from the 9th century it seems that the East Syriac Monks who would have come from Iraq, during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid_Caliphate">Abbasid Caliphate</a>, took with them a style of Cross that had an long heritage in the region.<br />
Though it seems that after two hundred years after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazdegerd_III#Last_stand">fall of the Sasanian dynasty</a> the meaning of the Wings had been forgotten.<br />
<br />
<br />
As has been already mentioned, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Syrian_Rite">East Syriac Church</a> historically had been for the most part under the rule of the Sasanian Empire until the invasion by the Arab Caliphate.<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism">Nestorian Church</a> also found refuge in the Sasanian Empire and flourished within it, even spreading beyong it to the east.<br />
<br />
Below are some examples of East Syriac Crosses found by the <a href="http://jaas.org/edocs/v12n2/fullers.pdf">excavation work carried out by the St. Louis Community College</a>.<br />
This is a fragmented Stucco panel found in 1995 by Hadar Selou, 100 cm deep, at the site of Tell Tuneinir, near <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hasakah">al-Hasakah</a> in Syria.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/tnr/crossHadarsPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/tnr/crossHadarsPhoto.jpg" height="320" width="172" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Area9ArtifactsArt.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Cross is described <i>"<a href="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Area9ArtifactsArt.html">resembles a Medieval Khatchkar, Armenian stone cross</a>"</i> but from what is being demonstrated here, there is a reason for this similarity, this style likely originates from the region, during the Sasanian Empire, than been brought exclusively from Armenia.<br />
<br />
<br />
Al-Hasakah is by the Khabur river, a tributary of the Euphrates. This would have been a border region between the Roman and Sasanian Empires from the 4th-7th centuries.<br />
<br />
Another relic found in the excavations at Tell Tuneinir, found at the site of the monastery of Beth Kadeshy in 2001 by the <a href="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Area9ArtifactsArt.html">St. Louis Community College</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/sca/TNRArea9CrossS1350(2001).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/sca/TNRArea9CrossS1350(2001).jpg" height="320" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Area9ArtifactsArt.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Below is the description given:<br />
<i>"Broken fragments of a molded stucco footstone associated with the burial of a bishop or abbot in the center of the main entrance of the monastery."<br />"Professor Michael Fuller interprets the image on the footstone as the Cross of Christ with a piece of fabric blown around its base. This would apply to the story of the resurrection of Christ and the empty burial shroud left behind in His tomb. The imagery is of the cross and resurrection."</i><br />
<br />
However, we see the prededents of this style of Cross.<br />
What is thought of as a shroud could be stylised Wings.<br />
<br />
Another find from the excavations:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/tnr/aDec2010/916002redCrossRightways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/tnr/aDec2010/916002redCrossRightways.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Area9ArtifactsArt.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Described as: "<i>Painted cross fragment from Square 16, locus 02 (stone registry number 1162);
discovered by James Walker during the 1999 field season.
The surviving fragment measures 14.5 cm in length,
9.2 cm in width, and 1.1 cm thick. It weighs 284.4 grams.</i>"<br />
<br />
Further afield, in modern China, is a monument created by the Nestorian community in 781 AD during the Tang Dynasty, known simply as the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorian_Stele">Nestorian Stele</a>".<br />
Atop of the edifice is a Cross.<br />
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<a href="http://www.aina.org/books/bftc/3fb35270.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.aina.org/books/bftc/3fb35270.jpg" height="185" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is how it is described in "<a href="http://www.aina.org/books/bftc/bftc.htm"><b>By Foot To China</b></a>" by John M. L. Young, 1984:<br />
"<i>The Cross sculptured on the famous Nestorian Monument-at Hsi-an-fu. <b>It stands in the middle of a dense cloud which is symbolic of Muhammadanism, and upon a lotus, which symbolises Buddhism</b>; its position indicates the triumph of the Luminous Religion of Christ over the religions of Muhammad and the Buddha. The sprays of flowers, one on each side, are said to indicate rebirth and joy.</i>"<br />
Again, seeing the precedent of the "Standard of Fars" of the Sasanian era, the "<i>dense cloud</i>" could be stylised Wings.<br />
<br />
Below is a sketch of a stucco Cross found during the excavations at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failaka_Island">Failaka</a>, a small island near Kuwait in 1989. The find site is known as "<a href="http://pazhayathu.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/christian-communities-in-gulf-from-4th.html">the southern Chapel</a>". <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqiYVPbdKu-SUdXB7tbMv-sIFH2WI1PipmMm32drUEB3WMflLUyAmwgbFw_WWdyklTDG15X3eMmdeojxRMEmBppHCfDNKjgWbINwqxuad_MYEGRdCNIZikfJZwAPuX2XozHISCi5zl9s/s400/Picture+7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqiYVPbdKu-SUdXB7tbMv-sIFH2WI1PipmMm32drUEB3WMflLUyAmwgbFw_WWdyklTDG15X3eMmdeojxRMEmBppHCfDNKjgWbINwqxuad_MYEGRdCNIZikfJZwAPuX2XozHISCi5zl9s/s400/Picture+7.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: http://pazhayathu.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/christian-communities-in-gulf-from-4th.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Some of the Christian communities, such as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar#Antiquity">Qatar</a>, ended by the late 7th century but in the region of Kuwait it is thought to have survived into the 9th century. In the above example we can see how the Wings on this Cross have become stylised.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Conclusion</b></u><br />
The type of Cross within a stylised Wreath may derive from the missionary activity from the Roman Empire. That Cross derives from the Chi-Rho monogram.<br />
<br />
The use of the Ahura Mazda Wings on Cross emblems stems from those regions being under the rule of the Sasanian Empire. (It is more likely this type of emblemology was used to show loyalty to the Sasanian Empire than to show rebellion.). These two types, surviving examples to be found in the modern Republic of Armenia, to me demonstrates the political and military "tug of war" that
took place over the Kingdom of Armenia from the 3rd to 7th centuries by
Rome and Persia.<br />
It is not exclusive to the Armenian region, as examples show this style of Winged Cross in the East Syriac communities of Iraq and their own activities into India and China.<br />
<br />
<br />
So how could the "Wings of Ahura Mazda" be used on the Cross, associated with Jesus Christ?<br />
Ultimately it may have been about showing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magi">Magi</a> and the Sasanian rulers that Jesus was about Goodness and was compatible with the Zoroastrian state religion.<br />
Christians in the Sasanian Empire had to prove that they were not a "fifth column" for the Christian Roman Empire and so a use of a Zoroastrian emblem in depicting the Cross may have been a way of showing this loyalty. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Armenia">part of Armenia that had come under Sasanian rule</a> and also the numerous Christian communities of Iraq would have (and did) create such a "hybrid" motif as has been shown in this article.<br />
After the fall of the Sasanian Empire, in the mid 7th century, these Christian communities would continue to make stone Crosses and use the Wings but gradually the meaning of the Wings was lost and their depiction became ever more stylised to the extent that modern research puzzles over their meaning, such as "Lotus Flowers" for the St. Thomas Cross or on the Nestorian Stele, or a "Shroud" in the Cross excavated at Tell Tuneinir in Syria.<br />
Certainly in the case with the famous Armenian Khatchkar, stylisation went far indeed, as shown in a final below. This is a row of Khatchkars of various styles from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecharis_Monastery">Kecharis Monastery</a> in the Republic of Armenia.<br />
The Monastery was founded by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavuni">Pahlavuni</a> family in the 11th century.<br />
Note the Khatchkar on the left where the Wings have turned into arms, hands at the end hold Crosses.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpjjEf762s-Ml6nJcTa8u163In84Iy6whhcG15bs6ygfQscFBn9MsRPM4KlNxP2OnkyJnesgyEJ2hA1ys8mxthOqd3d8ZZ7Mafr8TiJXhqklUrcjJ_Az-WrCUfBy-QH2xLiIfKtHegx4/s1600/Kecharis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpjjEf762s-Ml6nJcTa8u163In84Iy6whhcG15bs6ygfQscFBn9MsRPM4KlNxP2OnkyJnesgyEJ2hA1ys8mxthOqd3d8ZZ7Mafr8TiJXhqklUrcjJ_Az-WrCUfBy-QH2xLiIfKtHegx4/s1600/Kecharis.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
This finding should not imply that the Wings of Ahura Mazda do not belong on a Christian edifice but that Armenians and East Syriac Christians can take pride in the rich heritage of their Christian culture and that the Sasanian Empire was not as anti-Christian as is often made out in the Christian propaganda that I have read, as an Armenian of the Armenian Apostolic Church (as for example in the legend of <a href="http://understanding-our-past.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/on-saint-sarkis-saint-sergius.html">St. Sarkis</a>).<br />
Rather they were capable of coexistence.<br />
<br />
A lesson indeed for the modern world.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-5068285522139333332014-11-23T19:36:00.001+00:002014-11-23T19:36:13.465+00:00Saint Bartholomew & Astyages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Reading the legends of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle#In_Armenia">Saint Bartholomew</a> I came across the legend of him being in Armenia.<br />
<br />
The legend has him converting a king of Armenia, by the name of Polymius, to Christianity.<br />
<br />
Polymius' brother Astyages then had Bartholomew executed, the account has him flayed alive then crucified.<br />
<br />
Saint Bartholomew is said to have lived in the 1st century A.D.<br />
<br />
So no later than 100 A.D.<br />
<br />
There are no records of any <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsacid_dynasty_of_Armenia#Arsacid_Kings_of_Armenia">Armenian King of the Arsacid dynasty</a>, ever, with the name Polymius, be it before Saint Bartholomew was alive or after his execution.<br />
<br />
Surely they had records of the names of the kings of Armenia in Armenia?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movses_Khorenatsi">Movses Khorenatsi</a> wrote in the 5th century A.D. about King Tigran II, of the Artaxiad dynasty which predated the Arsacid rule in Armenia, in the 1st century B.C.<br />
<br />
So there clearly were records even of Kings who predated the Arsacid rule in Armenia in Armenia.<br />
<br />
So how can the King Polymius and his brother Astyages be explained?<br />
<br />
Polymius would be a Greek name that has been Latinised.<br />
<br />
So it would have been "Polymios".<br />
<br />
Polymios equates to "Great Strength", and is more likely to have been an <span data-dobid="hdw">epithet than a birth name.</span><br />
<span data-dobid="hdw"><br /></span>
<span data-dobid="hdw">There is no Arsacid King of Armenia that can be equated to this </span><span data-dobid="hdw">epithet for the era of </span><br />Saint Bartholomew.<br />
<br />
King Tigranes VI, 59 - 62 A.D. is not recorded having Saint Bartholomew at his court. <br />
King Tiridates I, 66- 88 A.D. is not recorded having Saint Bartholomew at his court.<br />
<br />
King Sanatruk, 88 - 110 A.D. is also not recorded having Saint Bartholomew at his court.<br />
<br />
The name Astyages is similar to the legendary evil king Azhdahak recorded in Movses Khorenatsi's <a href="http://understanding-our-past.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/legends-of-king-azhdahak-of-media.html">story about King Tigran II</a>.<br />
<br />
Can only assume that "Polymios" (Great Strength) and "Astyages" were invented as a "good, hero Christian king" versus evil man (Azhdahak), that Azhdahak became the eternal evil ruler in Armenian legend.<br />
<br />
This has a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism">dualistic</a>, even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism">Zoroastrian</a>, notion about it, Good versus Evil. <br />
<br />
Paradoxically, Movses' legend of Tigran II must be based on the legend of king Cyrus and the Median king Astyges written by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus">Herodotus</a> in the 5th century B.C.<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Bartholomew_Monastery">monastery complex</a>, still existing in ruins, in what was the south-west of the Armenian province of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaspurakan">Vaspurakan</a>, was said to be built over the site that Saint Bartholomew was executed. <br />
<br />
However, there is also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle#Mission_to_India">a legend</a> of a king Polymius and his brother, also a king, called Astreges and is set in India, where Saint Bartholomew is also said to have been.<br />
More on this can be read <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0825.htm">here</a>.<br />
<br />
As far as Armenia is concerned, there never was a king Polymius or a king or prince of the name Astyages.<br />
<br />
Most Churches, not just in the kingdom of Armenia, were built upon pre-existing religious sites that had been Temples. <br />
<span style="color: #c00000; font-size: 130%;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-50095597221150074832014-04-30T00:56:00.000+01:002017-05-08T23:46:01.640+01:00A comparison of the Kalash Gandau and remains of pre-Christian idols in the Republic of Armenia.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Further to the previous two posts on comparisons between the religious art of the Kalash and Armenian people, I post this, comparing the "Gandau" statues used in Kalash funery art and remains of pre-Christian idols in various museums in the Republic of Armenia.<br />
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Some examples of the "Gandau" of the Kalash people:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.chart.ac.uk/chart2001/papers/pics/witek-fig5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chart.ac.uk/chart2001/papers/pics/witek-fig5.jpg" height="366" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kalash "Gandau" wooden statues, photo taken circa 1929, from the website: <a href="http://www.chart.ac.uk/chart2001/papers/noframes/witek.html">http://www.chart.ac.uk/chart2001/papers/noframes/witek.html</a></td></tr>
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Modern Kalash "Gandau" tend not to have the elaborate Turban:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://thekalashatimes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/gandao1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://thekalashatimes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/gandao1.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the website: <a href="https://thekalashatimes.wordpress.com/author/thekalashatimes/page/17/">https://thekalashatimes.wordpress.com/author/thekalashatimes/page/17/</a></td></tr>
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Visiting the city of Etchmiadzin in the Republic of Armenia in November 2010, I went to the Museum and saw this fragment of a pre-Christian idol:<br />
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Before this, I had visited the ancient ruin of Erebuni, east of the capital city of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan, and saw this fragment of a pre-Christian idol in the Erebuni Museum:<br />
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I had visited the National Museum of Armenia in Yerevan as well, but photography is not allowed there, so I did some sketches of the artifacts inside:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note also my sketch of the "Altar Slab" from the ancient city of Dvin, Republic of Armenia, we will see this "head arrangement" in later photos...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe0HVLytmEjfeAgXj7YvnPx_D1y6gfoQr5s-Me1_Wtz8UPJDfhPTs7jPPnDBHpaqGZSZBd95vrr89qcZ8ymraaVYUB7SuaGGNweSab7xR6SEOd7YteKoZjKCkVL38o1CcQq8qX2IMJ-Q/s1600/Sketches+done+from+28-8-2010+to+29-11-2010d.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe0HVLytmEjfeAgXj7YvnPx_D1y6gfoQr5s-Me1_Wtz8UPJDfhPTs7jPPnDBHpaqGZSZBd95vrr89qcZ8ymraaVYUB7SuaGGNweSab7xR6SEOd7YteKoZjKCkVL38o1CcQq8qX2IMJ-Q/s1600/Sketches+done+from+28-8-2010+to+29-11-2010d.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note my sketch of an "Idol from Shamiran", note the cross (+) on the side of the head. Republic of Armenia dated to 1100 BC</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://users.tpg.com.au/johnfgraham/4000_kaleshfigure1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://users.tpg.com.au/johnfgraham/4000_kaleshfigure1.jpg" height="640" width="380" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20th century wooden Kalash Gandau, note the cross (+) on it's chest. From the website: <a href="http://users.tpg.com.au/johnfgraham/4000_India_Pakistan_Nepal_Art%20.htm">users.tpg.com.au</a></td></tr>
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In October 2011 I visited the cave of Anapat. It has numerous heads carved into the rock face. The purpuse of the creation of the cave and its carvings is not known.<br />
There is a narrow chamber, to the right of the entrance, that could have been for entombment of bodies. To the left was a stone door, now gone. There is a further chamber in that direction.<br />
Most of the faces resemble those seen on the "Dvin" Altar slab, though there is one main carving featuring four women with a Lion beneath them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steps that lead to the above of the cave.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaHJOV5UShbHb9KL88WSCGnzBP7QzvP_94A4LxwA1PKqXinq_z4-asbo2fLb2NRIjRCsuCc7hfBPSq1qt6pzZyE54d_CLFd3HxovY9dZzPfzAZAcDw6QUmR9CfgMcpMbkPSSXNapl2Ks/s1600/Lastiver+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaHJOV5UShbHb9KL88WSCGnzBP7QzvP_94A4LxwA1PKqXinq_z4-asbo2fLb2NRIjRCsuCc7hfBPSq1qt6pzZyE54d_CLFd3HxovY9dZzPfzAZAcDw6QUmR9CfgMcpMbkPSSXNapl2Ks/s1600/Lastiver+b.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Face of Lion with its front paws.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsXzeAQccKzF1xyCHLYMYFlJDg5N63j2t31fBbsfTYSjT2Q_OUxHzbk1iDK6AoBOMWhYwnj6kpd0pa8PCGP1iNxwrL_UTq2sX7trMpt2d6nIu_tdj8gvBUL0swX5XIhOXGvnk-cEp_qw/s1600/Lastiver+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsXzeAQccKzF1xyCHLYMYFlJDg5N63j2t31fBbsfTYSjT2Q_OUxHzbk1iDK6AoBOMWhYwnj6kpd0pa8PCGP1iNxwrL_UTq2sX7trMpt2d6nIu_tdj8gvBUL0swX5XIhOXGvnk-cEp_qw/s1600/Lastiver+a.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ibex" type Goat head.</td></tr>
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Compare the above photo with the detail of a Goat head carving (with a female figure clasping its horns) from a Kalash wooden carving:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://b9df12ed-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/anahitagallery/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan/aharch23a.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cpCvepTbqqFgc1G5gJuSKiLMnn_wq2qROEoXGJ6JDgBuneJZiOwqzCcrzE7AWcR0V7yUC7OBO6IEC8Tc227yA1Rd2PIPAefbqEZTjkeOwN1X-tV1ZSOl81yo87dFpbwcPP_1tmcXt6tVqoej1EZD_ZgzsSdioS08JQMRQpxjhNFuhiX_D85rMQDSq6CG59edx2e_BFFqmPDbiZ53oxIDT8I3PuV0jrt6opYmau-ZrtlrzraV5Ph6J7eEDItlCgzci9PYU_HX7HFj8TyWq5Pp1so38TRL49xomHW0Uqa4EqgNFeZlBM%3D&attredirects=0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://b9df12ed-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/anahitagallery/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan/aharch23a.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cpCvepTbqqFgc1G5gJuSKiLMnn_wq2qROEoXGJ6JDgBuneJZiOwqzCcrzE7AWcR0V7yUC7OBO6IEC8Tc227yA1Rd2PIPAefbqEZTjkeOwN1X-tV1ZSOl81yo87dFpbwcPP_1tmcXt6tVqoej1EZD_ZgzsSdioS08JQMRQpxjhNFuhiX_D85rMQDSq6CG59edx2e_BFFqmPDbiZ53oxIDT8I3PuV0jrt6opYmau-ZrtlrzraV5Ph6J7eEDItlCgzci9PYU_HX7HFj8TyWq5Pp1so38TRL49xomHW0Uqa4EqgNFeZlBM%3D&attredirects=0" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the website <a href="http://www.anahitagallery.com/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan">anahitagallery.com</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7j3vGrtIdONPFKVNemgwtSD_0GSzawIIdFDUmycrxK3f5ZvsBofZVxpAYYgTAomA1J6hR9pwHxmjzCj0H45-RWoBUVhKWhICvcnwSZzUL2U_4ZfqLU2R81L3J6MuyVoSngS8BgalaAw/s1600/Lastiver+d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7j3vGrtIdONPFKVNemgwtSD_0GSzawIIdFDUmycrxK3f5ZvsBofZVxpAYYgTAomA1J6hR9pwHxmjzCj0H45-RWoBUVhKWhICvcnwSZzUL2U_4ZfqLU2R81L3J6MuyVoSngS8BgalaAw/s1600/Lastiver+d.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Lion, six female figures are above it.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihgA_AUXCQ0snogk6XG_tpgy9IF8-OsAPIfk5neftI4SGIeQJi8l3krC5Qcb1fkWKERXRPZnYVy4ZmC2K_QI2tntNkZVqpk1NG4xdOzr0UwLIwG34BNC7D-ltd-sQyfvouyjhJSyisMw/s1600/Lastiver+g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihgA_AUXCQ0snogk6XG_tpgy9IF8-OsAPIfk5neftI4SGIeQJi8l3krC5Qcb1fkWKERXRPZnYVy4ZmC2K_QI2tntNkZVqpk1NG4xdOzr0UwLIwG34BNC7D-ltd-sQyfvouyjhJSyisMw/s1600/Lastiver+g.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-26180434549447629062014-04-28T23:17:00.002+01:002014-04-30T01:06:49.610+01:00Other similar symbols of Armenia and the Kalash people<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Saw this photo, of a detail from the inside of a Kalash mens Temple, from the website <a href="http://www.piersallison.co.uk/photos/locations/pakistan1994.htm">piersallison.co.uk</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.piersallison.co.uk/images/pakistan/bumbaret_house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.piersallison.co.uk/images/pakistan/bumbaret_house.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/20120810/large-p-26-c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/20120810/large-p-26-c.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kalash Shrine (Malosh) dedicated to the God "Mahando", with wooden Horse heads, from the website: <a href="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20120810&page=26">thefridaytimes.com</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://b9df12ed-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/anahitagallery/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan/aharch22a.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cr0Cq2NYahAfUtYYKJmzba4GRyQpB2iH5iHR5vxwyIgBXwjvUxMz20pjL7dvxOiN-fDu0-bi83lOJ4QtlNkdnMLkDCCk0VdzgtiqkeWRpY6FSm__evmz6IUv95tE9snPtFKbk84y4Xpr6nZTL_KDqmp0EX-A1E6cjwf27jcNp886OO551uO1ZN0B8lankyJ_iIicNMFJg7hmxuxpvZO5eCOsnOFKs22Fo_YicMrsZgyyrcGrbFPa_jJlYpmPuRXRzp93auymxOCdejkV4lDHwv8uP8B0UB2B0lQW5LTCiI_jEbH_mE%3D&attredirects=0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://b9df12ed-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/anahitagallery/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan/aharch22a.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cr0Cq2NYahAfUtYYKJmzba4GRyQpB2iH5iHR5vxwyIgBXwjvUxMz20pjL7dvxOiN-fDu0-bi83lOJ4QtlNkdnMLkDCCk0VdzgtiqkeWRpY6FSm__evmz6IUv95tE9snPtFKbk84y4Xpr6nZTL_KDqmp0EX-A1E6cjwf27jcNp886OO551uO1ZN0B8lankyJ_iIicNMFJg7hmxuxpvZO5eCOsnOFKs22Fo_YicMrsZgyyrcGrbFPa_jJlYpmPuRXRzp93auymxOCdejkV4lDHwv8uP8B0UB2B0lQW5LTCiI_jEbH_mE%3D&attredirects=0" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shutter panels from a Verandah, in the "Nuristan" (formerly Kafiristan) region of Afghanistan, from the website: <a href="http://www.anahitagallery.com/articles-on-art/architecture-of-nuristan-afghanistan">anahitagallery.com</a></td></tr>
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Compare with my photo of the base of an early medieval Khatchkar, outside a Chapel, near the ruined Cathedral of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Talin">Talin</a>, Republic of Armenia.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6uLHkcMYVUqOdYUyn_KhKYc2yk_GfCeD9ZTSSWIPsbiyXkMv762gmxZpMRhRoa3mywi_xoN3AVD95_QMhJB0185wol6BxaXDD_gXKMS-yNZEFH9mGSRR4pr1vxNVwgxx4ApmaAAVGCI/s1600/DSCF7835.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6uLHkcMYVUqOdYUyn_KhKYc2yk_GfCeD9ZTSSWIPsbiyXkMv762gmxZpMRhRoa3mywi_xoN3AVD95_QMhJB0185wol6BxaXDD_gXKMS-yNZEFH9mGSRR4pr1vxNVwgxx4ApmaAAVGCI/s1600/DSCF7835.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from the base of an early Medieval Khatchkar, near Talin Cathedral, Republic of Armenia.</td></tr>
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A wooden Ram sculpture, on the exterior wall of the Kalash mens Temple, from the website <a href="http://www.kjti.co.uk/Balanguru%20Tirich%20Mir.htm">kjti.co.uk</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.kjti.co.uk/images/Shears-Images/02Sep009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kjti.co.uk/images/Shears-Images/02Sep009.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
A stone Ram carving, one of many elaborate relief sculptures on the exterior of the Armenian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Cathedral_of_the_Holy_Cross">Cathedral of the Holy Cross</a>, on the island of Akhtamar, now in the Republic of Turkey.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFv2uOSscok6wnImJsp8r8r9yM3ARJR_jyS-UmTJERbFkEoEumGe_bPeVpQ5cM8OGa5Oi1aE0hfFL8UKAo2Y2xoiu-XeC2WynmsUHRxpHJHhrk3p0fre9t8K7thyphenhyphenHCMcgg2QPiIGTo5Vo/s1600/25.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFv2uOSscok6wnImJsp8r8r9yM3ARJR_jyS-UmTJERbFkEoEumGe_bPeVpQ5cM8OGa5Oi1aE0hfFL8UKAo2Y2xoiu-XeC2WynmsUHRxpHJHhrk3p0fre9t8K7thyphenhyphenHCMcgg2QPiIGTo5Vo/s1600/25.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-40262434312130787412014-04-28T17:46:00.002+01:002017-01-10T22:36:36.795+00:00The "Eternity" Symbol used in the Armenian and Kalash cultures.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Being of Armenian parentage, I had got used to seeing this symbol used in medieval Armenian art.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDUBHARIHWRXfhryDphEYRRoJ82R0UH60H6s0LtrQfkDKX7xxFGm2UFpQob9FEmT0PDdVVZT33Y_MgRzYaAYTjjzSCV7vYWgrnSTAQJWDZEU3Ubx-fajqsVIu3MS-h8R8NI4YLLUerZA/s1600/DSCF7345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDUBHARIHWRXfhryDphEYRRoJ82R0UH60H6s0LtrQfkDKX7xxFGm2UFpQob9FEmT0PDdVVZT33Y_MgRzYaAYTjjzSCV7vYWgrnSTAQJWDZEU3Ubx-fajqsVIu3MS-h8R8NI4YLLUerZA/s1600/DSCF7345.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On a Khatchkar, Etchmiadzin, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEWGy45lF4kvBM18l0cxwtRiGIrdH0-iUEz01y5-81pFV6t6d-vKDQmsJIbO9Q4sa68bUlgSVNhEzuA15pj2DdXVVEKczfCaLuBL5q1cK_fVjfifxk1XPea2fkX7QXngWj8NG10pqiDA/s1600/Gandzasar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEWGy45lF4kvBM18l0cxwtRiGIrdH0-iUEz01y5-81pFV6t6d-vKDQmsJIbO9Q4sa68bUlgSVNhEzuA15pj2DdXVVEKczfCaLuBL5q1cK_fVjfifxk1XPea2fkX7QXngWj8NG10pqiDA/s1600/Gandzasar.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gandzasar Cathedral, Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyb1diC46rVHneVuQbGi12RKgaJ4q63V8RpTXF__ar3-g4otUYtaOoRhcLGH13kKyT5jInR1miE7SH2uVSt2KBEYy_QWlnlH5YVB742sN2ILhQBPmAne6WDhKhhoLoiqFPzkbzfVSKALc/s1600/Kanaker+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyb1diC46rVHneVuQbGi12RKgaJ4q63V8RpTXF__ar3-g4otUYtaOoRhcLGH13kKyT5jInR1miE7SH2uVSt2KBEYy_QWlnlH5YVB742sN2ILhQBPmAne6WDhKhhoLoiqFPzkbzfVSKALc/s1600/Kanaker+2.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outside of a Church in the Kanaker district of Yerevan, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6hGqiT1bljiYq0qZJeFapC3aOgWCr7StHkyXjjStpGtAU01sbj6mOdobB6AYIu_jepocPMceKJJzyAei2oIhR97csyirUXzEiJyzNxPZdnrunADvaEsIiIoYjDbWNhnq7tejaPZ3Pq1c/s1600/Noravank,+Armenia+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6hGqiT1bljiYq0qZJeFapC3aOgWCr7StHkyXjjStpGtAU01sbj6mOdobB6AYIu_jepocPMceKJJzyAei2oIhR97csyirUXzEiJyzNxPZdnrunADvaEsIiIoYjDbWNhnq7tejaPZ3Pq1c/s1600/Noravank,+Armenia+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noravank, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfKJwBc0wR_nsGhh9eg988zjmxT3UOHacWfOiVrBx_kErUYjqMvbFmHnEig3GRNA0kwBJvSq2Mf39E_E7COxd7wvlflqUq-fRyuFDmUe2y5JUMpfH5mu8uVN08-WJKjZDF09es4udBg3c/s1600/Noravank,+Armenia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfKJwBc0wR_nsGhh9eg988zjmxT3UOHacWfOiVrBx_kErUYjqMvbFmHnEig3GRNA0kwBJvSq2Mf39E_E7COxd7wvlflqUq-fRyuFDmUe2y5JUMpfH5mu8uVN08-WJKjZDF09es4udBg3c/s1600/Noravank,+Armenia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noravank, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirk6Clwmg3vKjfFZ4ydyjFZaGO1cSvZ3En0kHOhtCBVTSDNbJRBB-qoBSKOafXqx5uG_DRXoLDPDFlE4rjV7eIo6xCW-Quqeng_8ln-_xokK69aHdOJjkHDAa84udq7p4uTD9mC73dWkU/s1600/Saint+Gregory,+Ani,+Turkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirk6Clwmg3vKjfFZ4ydyjFZaGO1cSvZ3En0kHOhtCBVTSDNbJRBB-qoBSKOafXqx5uG_DRXoLDPDFlE4rjV7eIo6xCW-Quqeng_8ln-_xokK69aHdOJjkHDAa84udq7p4uTD9mC73dWkU/s1600/Saint+Gregory,+Ani,+Turkey.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saint Gregory Cathedral, ruined city of Ani, Republic of Turkey</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQYJNQHUM1pXo_wA-gZMaYAof__yb2oGRZtbuJVP2tLT3mLJh9-4Og1XOKVFFHlYRi8VTfSWX_zJfMY5UMjpVknTtzgHKTNf5izXtQRlKWw3j1oxoHvizFsrS-7K5QqjPPbTga6q05AXE/s1600/Tatev,+Armenia+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQYJNQHUM1pXo_wA-gZMaYAof__yb2oGRZtbuJVP2tLT3mLJh9-4Og1XOKVFFHlYRi8VTfSWX_zJfMY5UMjpVknTtzgHKTNf5izXtQRlKWw3j1oxoHvizFsrS-7K5QqjPPbTga6q05AXE/s1600/Tatev,+Armenia+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tatev monastery, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3r5YEQNV1nTEHX663dSmkl8b-THCCoeSbn9TtKtj68oUcqNYrpYd-ct-7eZG9bxB0jU7WdboMfuH_J-XYDSJdOQpOw3xtk5hRnwJO9UkV5GOx6-ZlWNV_aP8lOVfGlrhyphenhyphenQkGBzXK5z7s/s1600/Yegheghise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3r5YEQNV1nTEHX663dSmkl8b-THCCoeSbn9TtKtj68oUcqNYrpYd-ct-7eZG9bxB0jU7WdboMfuH_J-XYDSJdOQpOw3xtk5hRnwJO9UkV5GOx6-ZlWNV_aP8lOVfGlrhyphenhyphenQkGBzXK5z7s/s1600/Yegheghise.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outside of a Chapel, Yeghegise, Republic of Armenia</td></tr>
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I recalled browsing a book that featured a plate of a sarcophagus, in "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafiristan">Kafiristan</a>", Afghanistan, that featured the "Eternity" symbol.<br />
However, recent attempts to find any images online brought nought.<br />
<br />
Being a member of the British Museum, I get their quarterly magazine.<br />
For the Spring/Summer issue of 2014 they featured a section on the "<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=556035&partId=1&searchText=&images=&people=&place=&from=&fromDate=&to=&toDate=&object=&subject=&matcult=&technique=17456&school=&material=&ethname=&ware=&escape=&museumno=&bibliography=&citation=&sortBy=&peoA=&plaA=&termA=&view=list&page=222">Gandau</a>" statues used by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people">Kalash</a> people, living in the Chitral valley of modern-day Pakistan.<br />
Below is a photo from the said issue of the magazine, page 51, the photo is by Luke Rehmat:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqsNL73T5_-XBzhyjmpSHnFjrPvrVDtyQnT_h8kY1rMixazZWljdphwSt9FnYHJxIitY9twLgPLuTRGDV66HRnn1tJTlw5UdFxE30lET0Rqx1xZz52ra4KWN6w6XJ63Bmkhv3JNzou5NY/s1600/DSCF4305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqsNL73T5_-XBzhyjmpSHnFjrPvrVDtyQnT_h8kY1rMixazZWljdphwSt9FnYHJxIitY9twLgPLuTRGDV66HRnn1tJTlw5UdFxE30lET0Rqx1xZz52ra4KWN6w6XJ63Bmkhv3JNzou5NY/s1600/DSCF4305.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Notice the similarity of the symbol used on the Gandau statue on the right, to the "Eternity" symbol used in medieval Armenian funerary and Church art.<br />
Another example of this pair of Gandau, from the website <a href="http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/road-trips-vacations/190753-7-day-trip-kalash-shandur-phander-gilgit-hunza-babusar-2011-a-2">pakwheels.com</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/attachments/road-trips-vacations/397537d1335091100-7-day-trip-kalash-shandur-phander-gilgit-hunza-babusar-2011-img_5340-copy-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/attachments/road-trips-vacations/397537d1335091100-7-day-trip-kalash-shandur-phander-gilgit-hunza-babusar-2011-img_5340-copy-.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
Another pair of Gandau from the same website:<br />
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<a href="http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/attachments/road-trips-vacations/397539d1335091100-7-day-trip-kalash-shandur-phander-gilgit-hunza-babusar-2011-img_5345-copy-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/attachments/road-trips-vacations/397539d1335091100-7-day-trip-kalash-shandur-phander-gilgit-hunza-babusar-2011-img_5345-copy-.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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Below is from the website davecullen.com, showing a an image that features sarcophagii of the Kalash people:<br />
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<a href="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg130/Makedoncki/soncevecnost3grob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg130/Makedoncki/soncevecnost3grob.jpg" height="510" width="640" /></a></div>
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Compare with another look at my photo of the outside of the dome of the Cathedral of Saint Gregory, in the ruined city of Ani, today in the Republic of Turkey:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-0fSLgJkDAEgJ1j7l5Yy3V8Lf18Bb8hyphenhyphenXlOk9_R5igd0aifQWLvUbYq6IeiEdElR4xwuu-UguhK1ZmmFtWNxXYFpEVjqrsB7cj9MAXD5_vMCFFwWRQEtPtZwJ602tpPaXHMn019Z1-Y/s1600/Saint+Gregory,+Ani,+Turkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-0fSLgJkDAEgJ1j7l5Yy3V8Lf18Bb8hyphenhyphenXlOk9_R5igd0aifQWLvUbYq6IeiEdElR4xwuu-UguhK1ZmmFtWNxXYFpEVjqrsB7cj9MAXD5_vMCFFwWRQEtPtZwJ602tpPaXHMn019Z1-Y/s1600/Saint+Gregory,+Ani,+Turkey.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Below is from the website <a href="http://madamepickwickartblog.com/">madamepickwickartblog.com</a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijpJ7PXx6Y5qqr9b5RyxeL0CI39bvRrCe93XdcXfw8xEtxfMSdZG9SQFY4J6s7ovUEOAVF_icJpkYMhJLRN-ACpwcrmYnMtARScQzP0AbKp3RnYaKDm_iZB8rOARskW2q4518CN0KdZq4/s1600/The+Goat+Sacrifice+to+Sajigor-Shura+Verin-Indra%252C+the+kafir+God+of+Power%252C+Wealth+and+Fertility.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijpJ7PXx6Y5qqr9b5RyxeL0CI39bvRrCe93XdcXfw8xEtxfMSdZG9SQFY4J6s7ovUEOAVF_icJpkYMhJLRN-ACpwcrmYnMtARScQzP0AbKp3RnYaKDm_iZB8rOARskW2q4518CN0KdZq4/s1600/The+Goat+Sacrifice+to+Sajigor-Shura+Verin-Indra%252C+the+kafir+God+of+Power%252C+Wealth+and+Fertility.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Goat Sacrifice to Sajigor-Shura Verin-Indra, the "kafir" God of Power, Wealth and Fertility</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
View of the inside of the Temple for Kalash men, from the website <a href="http://www.kjti.co.uk/Balanguru%20Tirich%20Mir.htm">kjti.co.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.kjti.co.uk/images/Shears-Images/02Sep008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kjti.co.uk/images/Shears-Images/02Sep008.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<span class="userContent">The Kalash tribe, around 2,000 strong, survive
in the remote Chitral valley of north-west Pakistan. Formerly sharing
much in common with neighbouring peoples in the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafiristan"><i>Kafiristan</i></a>" region of
Afghanistan, until those people were forced to conve<span class="text_exposed_show">rt
to Islam in the late 19th century by the Emir of Afghanistan, who
renamed the region "Nuristan". </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Also in the 19th century came about the
myth that the Kalash people come from "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great">Alexander the Great</a>". </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Up until then, they had
never claimed such descent, it was the British Scholar, G. S. Robertson (<i><a href="https://archive.org/details/aninquiryintoet00goog">An Inquiry Into The Ethnography Of Afghanistan</a>, 1891, by H. W. Bellew & G. S. Robertson</i>) who made the link to Alexander the Great. </span></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Recent genetic testing has shown that the Kalash people have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranians">Indo-Iranian</a>, rather than Macedonian or Greek genetic ancestry.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">If there is any remote link between the Kalash
people and Armenia, it may derive from Armenians being deported to the
remotest parts of Khorasan (Afghanistan) during the era of the Sasanid
Persian Empire, for example during the reign or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazdegerd_II#Wars">Shah Yazdegerd II</a>, or from a far older <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avestan">Avestan</a> connection.</span></span></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-9258559771706054352014-02-16T22:51:00.000+00:002014-02-23T02:02:36.892+00:00On the Saint Sarkis, Saint Sergius, Martyros/Mardiros, Bacchus legends<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After attending the service at the Saint Sarkis Church, Kensington, London, 16/2/2014 and having read the pamphlet that was handed out on the "<i>Feast of St. Sarkis and Church Name Day</i>"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5bcGUy0EpJ8z3wue2ndIgMwF9U12Vh0U_F7OXbeZTVxy_DnITwxlrvbXs78I-KQO1tS_iCx5QycS1wjjaoDaURc4t_UiAphwfZ62nDfvq2S1bJJwlnQQCuoQk-X8Df5q0h-W8LY9oCAw/s1600/st.+sarkis+stuff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5bcGUy0EpJ8z3wue2ndIgMwF9U12Vh0U_F7OXbeZTVxy_DnITwxlrvbXs78I-KQO1tS_iCx5QycS1wjjaoDaURc4t_UiAphwfZ62nDfvq2S1bJJwlnQQCuoQk-X8Df5q0h-W8LY9oCAw/s1600/st.+sarkis+stuff.jpg" height="320" width="217" /> </a></div>
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It was reading phrases in that pamphlet such as "<i>King <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate">Julian</a></i>" and "<i>(Sarkis') only son <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr">Martyros</a></i>" that vexed me.</div>
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This would not be the first case of history being remodelled for the "<i>lives of the Saints</i>"</div>
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So I decided to see what Wikipedia has on Saint Sarkis, I copy below some from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sarkis_the_Warrior">their article</a>: </div>
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"<i>Saint Sarkis the Warrior (Armenian: Սուրբ Սարգիս Զորավար, c. 4th century, died 362-363) also known as Saint Sarkis the Greek was a Centurion in the Roman Empire. Sarkis was a contemporary of the ruling Constantinian dynasty and the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia.</i>"</div>
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So it is made clear that he was a Greek. <br />
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"<i>Little is known on the origins and early life of Sarkis. Sarkis is thought to have been an Armenian or an Anatolian Greek from the plains of Cappadocia."</i></div>
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Um, it has already been stated in his epithet "Saint Sarkis the <b>Greek</b>"</div>
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<i> "Sarkis was appointed by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great as General in Chief of the region of Cappadocia bordering Armenia. Sarkis was reputed to possess the characteristics of piety, faith and valor, and used his position for spiritual growth, teaching the gospel and church building.</i></div>
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<i>"General in Chief of the region of Cappadocia" </i>would have been the military commader for Cappadocia with his headquarters at Caesarea.<i><br /></i></div>
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The Gospels were known already, certainly in Cappadocia, since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Gregory_the_Illuminator">Saint Gregory</a> was raised as a Christian in it's capital, Caesarea, setting out to convert the Kingdom of Armenia by 301 A.D.<i><br /></i></div>
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Also the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Milan">Edict of Milan</a> in 313 A.D. made life for Christians in all of the Roman Empire, tolerable.</div>
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In that year, Cappadocia was part of the Eastern Empire under the rule of Emperor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licinius">Licinius</a>.</div>
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<i>Constantine’s nephew Julian the Apostate became emperor in 361 and set about persecuting Christians throughout the Roman Empire. Sarkis was deeply concerned about the these events and prayed for a solution. Jesus is said to have appeared to Sarkis and uttered the words: "It is time for you to leave your country and your clan, as did Abraham the Patriarch, and go to a country which I will show you. There you will receive the crown of righteousness prepared for you." Sarkis then left his military position and authority and, with his son Mardiros, sought refuge in Armenia under the protection of King Tiran (Tigranes VII). As Julian and his army advanced toward Antioch Syria slaughtering Christians, Tiran urged Sarkis and Mardiros to leave Armenia for the Sassanid Empire.</i></div>
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<b>No mention is made of the fact that Julian had spent his youth in Cappadocia and was a Baptised Christian, reverting to "Paganism" when he was around 20 years old.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further, there are no historical records of Julian and his army slaughtering Christians as they advanced towards Antioch, the then capital of Syria.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>However, Julian saught to revive the "Pagan" traditions of Antioch. Most of all, and also unmentioned, is that <span style="color: purple;"><u>he saught to root out state corruption, especially by the wealthy merchant classes of Antioch.</u></span> </b></span><i> </i></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigranes_VII">King Tiran</a> had been dead for 11 years by 361 A.D. having died in 350 A.D.</b></span></span></div>
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<b>So did Sarkis meet the ghost of Tiran?</b></div>
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There was an instance of "military commanders" leaving Armenia for the court of Shapur II.</div>
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Well, leaving is an understatement, more <b>they defected</b>. </div>
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This happened, for example with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meruzhan_Artsruni">Meruzhan Artsruni</a>, who defected with his forces to Shapur II in around 360-361 A.D.</div>
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<i>"Sassanid emperor Shapur II, hearing of Sarkis' reputation as a skilled military commander, appointed him to command the Sassanid army." </i></div>
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<b>It is highly unlikely Shapur II would have risked upsetting his Nakhvadars (from which the Armenian title "Nakharar" comes from) and Spah Pati (akin to the Armenian Sparapet) by given supreme command to a Greek Christian.</b></div>
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If Shapur II ever used Greek (Roman) mercenaries in his army, he could
have deployed them to conduct surveillance in an invading Roman army,
such as that of Julian II when he campaigned into northern Mesopotamia
on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate#Into_enemy_territory">5th of March 363 A.D</a>.</div>
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<i>"Sarkis credited God for his military victories, which included fending off Julian’s troops entering into Shapur’s kingdom. Sarkis urged troops serving with him to be believe in the Creator of Heaven and earth and their hearts would never be shaken.</i>"</div>
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"Creator of Heaven and earth (sic)" is quite an ambiguous title, not purely stating Jesus Christ.</div>
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For the Zoroastrians, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda">Ahura Mazda</a> was the Creator of the Universe, including Earth.</div>
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It reminds me of the ambiguous wording used in the inscription on the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Constantine">Arch of Constantine</a>":</div>
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"<i>To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed Augustus: because he, <b>inspired by the divine</b>, and by the greatness of his mind, has delivered the state from the tyrant and all of his followers at the same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate and People of Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs.</i>"<br />
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Constantine, whilst having signed the Edict of Milan, was an open worshipper of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_%28mythology%29#Sol_Invictus">Sol</a>.</div>
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He was baptised on his death bed.</div>
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"<i>Some of Sarkis’ soldiers were baptized by travelling priests of the Sassanid army, yet some who were not baptized went to Shapur II and had told him about the religious beliefs of Sarkis. After realizing that Sarkis was a Christian, Shapur called up Sarkis, his son Mardiros and his 14 soldier companions who were newly baptized back to his palace.</i>"</div>
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Shapur II was vehemently Zoroastrian and against any other religion that would upset the State.<br />
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However there was already a large Christian population in Mesopotamia by the time of Shapur II. </div>
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<b>Why would Shapur II allow "<i>travelling priests"</i> into the Sasanian army when his policy was anti-Christian?</b><i><br /></i></div>
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"<i>Shapur ordered Sarkis, Mardiros and Sarkis’ companions to participate and offer sacrifices in a Zoroastrianism ceremony in a pagan temple. Sarkis refused Shapur’s orders and said: ‘We should worship one God – the Holy Trinity, which has created the earth and the heaven. Whereas fire or idols are not gods and the human being may destroy them’.</i>"</div>
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This is strangely reminiscent of what Saint Gregory is said to have responded to King Tiridates III when asked to participate in ceremonies at the royal Temple.</div>
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This is removed from the Wikipedia article on Saint Gregory.</div>
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I quote from the book "<i>The History Of My Ancestors</i>" published in July 1978 by the Mekhitarist Fathers of the Island of San Lazzaro:</div>
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"- <b>You place some branches too, Gregory</b> - said Dertades.</div>
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- <b>No, I do not wish to make an offering to a statue. I am a Christian</b> - Gregory replied" ~ <i>The History Of My Ancestors, page 32</i>.</div>
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I doubt the venerable Mekhitarist Fathers of the Island of San Lazzaro would make that up.</div>
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Even more strange, whereas Sarkis previously stated "the Creator of Heaven and Earth" he later states the "Holy Trinity, which has created the Earth and the Heaven".</div>
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Make your mind up Sarkis.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Also "<i>sacrifices in a Zoroastrianism ceremony in a pagan temple"</i> is a misnomer since <u>a Zoroastrian Temple is, a Zoroastrian Temple</u>. Shapur II was against heresies and would only have officiated in a Zoroastrian Temple. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Also <u>the only "<i>sacrifices</i>" to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_temple#Worship">Eternal Fire</a> was Sandalwood</u>.</b></span><i><br /></i></div>
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<i>"After Sarkis responded to the Sassanid King, Sarkis destroyed all the items in the temple which annoyed the surrounding crowd who fell on him and his son."</i></div>
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What items, the Sacred Fire?</div>
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So the Temple Guards did not stop him? And the crowd saw him do this, whilst they were outside the Temple? </div>
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If the crowd "<i>fell on him and his son</i>" then that would have been the end of them, surely they would have torn them to pieces.</div>
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Yet, apparently not:</div>
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"<i>Shapur outraged by Sarkis’ actions, had his son Mardiros killed before his eyes and had his 14 companions beheaded. Sarkis was put in prison and Shapur hearing that Sarkis was strengthened by his relationship with the Lord in prison outraged him so much, Shapur ordered Sarkis’ execution.</i>"</div>
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Ironically, Sarkis' son was martyred and his name was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr">Mardiros</a> which is the Greek word for martyr.<br />
In Western Armenian the name is rendered as "Martyros".<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Same meaning. That was never his original name. </b></span><br />
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14 seems to have a special symbolism, 14 years was also given for the amount of time Saint Gregory was meant to have been imprisoned at Khor Virap.</div>
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<b>It is surprising that after such sacrilege, Shapur did not have Sarkis executed too.</b></div>
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Sarkis seems to have enraged Shapur II whilst in prison so much that he was executed, yet at around the same time from 363 - 370 A.D. King Arshak II, a staunch Christian and opponent to Shapur II was imprisoned by Shapur II and was never executed. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arshak_II#Imprisonment_.26_Suicide">He killed himself</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Conclusions</b></span></div>
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The "Armenian" saint Sarkis is said to be one and the same as the Greek saint <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sergius">Sergius</a>.</div>
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Rather than having a son called "<i>Martyros/Mardiros</i>" he had a companion called Bacchus.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Even then, how could such an espoused, fervent Christian, retain an obviously "pagan" name as Bacchus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek "pagan" God, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus">Dionysus</a>.</b></span></div>
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Legend has them active at the time of the Eastern Emperor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerius">Galerius</a>.</div>
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However, if they ever existed, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sergius#Historicity">historical research</a> puts them active in the reign of Emperor Julian II.</div>
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Just as Saint Sarkis and <i>Martyros/Mardiros</i> are supposed to have been active in that Emperor's reign.</div>
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<b>So <i>"Martyros/Mardiros"</i> the martyred son may well be Bacchus.</b><i></i></div>
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If Sergius/Sarkis was real and appointed to be a commander of the military forces of Cappadocia in the era of Constantine, circa 337 A.D. (when Constantine died) lets say Sergius/Sarkis was around 37 years old.</div>
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He would have been answerable to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablabius_%28consul_331%29">Flavius Ablabius</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_prefecture_of_the_East">Praetorian prefect of the East</a> from 329 to 337 A.D. </div>
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Ablabius was the father-in-law to King Arshak II, who married Ablabius' daughter, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympias_of_Armenia">Olympias</a>. </div>
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The Eastern Emperor Constantius II later had Ablabius executed for his pro-Nicene Christian sympathies in 338 A.D.</div>
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Constantius II was successful in defending the eastern frontier against Shapur II in the region of war, in Syria and northern Mespotamia from 337 - 340 A.D.</div>
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In 360 A.D. Constantius II was the sole Emperor and faced a determined attack on the eastern frontiers by Shapur II, when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singara">Singara</a>, amongst other strong fortresses, were captured.</div>
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It would have been useful to Shapur II to have renegades from the Roman army.</div>
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In 361 A.D. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate">Julian II</a> took power.</div>
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Again, it would have been useful to Shapur II to have renegades from the Roman army.</div>
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By 363 A.D. Sergius/Sarkis would have been 63 and he could have had a son, who was also serving in the army. Rather than being called "<i>martyr</i>" he might have had a real name, like Bacchus. <i></i></div>
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After <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate#Death">Julian II's death</a> in 363 A.D. the Roman army of the campaign chose Jovian, who quickly signed over Mesopotamia to Shapur II.<i><br /></i></div>
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Both Sergius and Sarkis died and were buried in the region of the war.</div>
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Sergius at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resafa">Resafa</a> in northern Syria, just south of the Euphrates.</div>
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Sarkis is just stated as being buried in a village called "<i>Namyan</i>" in Assyria.</div>
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Bachus died at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbalissos">Barbalissos</a>, a little to the north-west of Resafa.</div>
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What seems to end up in Christian Martyrology often has a dubious if not awkward origin.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Were Sergius/Sarkis and Bacchus/Martyros in the pay of Shapur II?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And so found out and executed by Julian II?</b></span></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-84837196795216431432013-11-12T22:10:00.000+00:002013-11-14T01:42:08.919+00:00The Roman Eagle Statue Of The Minories, London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In September 2013 a team of Archaeologists working on the site of a soon to be built 16 floor hotel in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Minories">Minories</a> area of the City of London found this in, what was a ditch, caked in mud.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGtgxGoK7R2-w-CWg-KpuvbMiPsW1ATRXFzXS76h680Vx6SUld5m0nQz4-9DiPXCAtPE5Sce0LsCUVzEFKAUvikuzh4-Db13BcUyyrMu_i5GN58UnbESsPLHP3oEz8ksB0YVkGobmJbg/s1600/Eagle+of+the+Minories+with+watermark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGtgxGoK7R2-w-CWg-KpuvbMiPsW1ATRXFzXS76h680Vx6SUld5m0nQz4-9DiPXCAtPE5Sce0LsCUVzEFKAUvikuzh4-Db13BcUyyrMu_i5GN58UnbESsPLHP3oEz8ksB0YVkGobmJbg/s320/Eagle+of+the+Minories+with+watermark.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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Eventually it was revealed and the Archaeologists were initially hesitant to decide on it being of the Roman era due to its exceptional quality.<br />
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There is only one other like it in the world. Found in the country of Jordan in 1937 and now on display in the Cincinnati Art Museum, U.S.A.<br />
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<a href="http://electricpuppet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/roman-eagle-jordan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://electricpuppet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/roman-eagle-jordan.png" width="231" /></a></div>
The Eagle found in the Minories is thought to have been part of a Mausoleum, the foundations of which were also found in the excavations.<br />
The Eagle is thought to date to around the 1st to 2nd centuries A.D.<br />
The Mausoleum is thought to have been broken up for use as building material, possibly to do with the construction of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Wall#Construction_of_the_Roman_wall">wall</a> around Londinium in around 200 A.D.<br />
However the Eagle was kept intact and placed in a ditch.<br />
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It would have been painted originally, and it does have some detail on the back, contrary to what has been reported.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUmi0uKW5ghllk_WWxs3JRRgk8zw7uAXL7f4pGV1coFuyktSYWov-984WJ2DeZPyAgM72D1bZRccXX1A_WWU6j7qKjsVn6BEdRZmgev33KgvJYsitrTThOwwqlGXPJw29rUjkTdXTeMk/s1600/Eagle+of+the+Minories+back+with+watermark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUmi0uKW5ghllk_WWxs3JRRgk8zw7uAXL7f4pGV1coFuyktSYWov-984WJ2DeZPyAgM72D1bZRccXX1A_WWU6j7qKjsVn6BEdRZmgev33KgvJYsitrTThOwwqlGXPJw29rUjkTdXTeMk/s320/Eagle+of+the+Minories+back+with+watermark.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTN9FUbX9lKFT4qXJ7rPyU_uHMy9amBRSScNkK2k_1leykOUk0CQI1y8iDqNysYZmzPc3SYLZmS5rYOkQjwdB0iM_3DKZcH1L5YfCSwOXSLSvDsBZr0eJPfINhsicvLmBnxn9FohMPARw/s1600/Eagle+of+the+Minories+Side+right+with+watermark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTN9FUbX9lKFT4qXJ7rPyU_uHMy9amBRSScNkK2k_1leykOUk0CQI1y8iDqNysYZmzPc3SYLZmS5rYOkQjwdB0iM_3DKZcH1L5YfCSwOXSLSvDsBZr0eJPfINhsicvLmBnxn9FohMPARw/s320/Eagle+of+the+Minories+Side+right+with+watermark.jpg" width="169" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbc1vIgIdKYThW0FkzK7xyAnHDbyLzfAcVnAHDZELa276F4J_D5modpXqxaqxyqJsg-4u_OTJvl00Mavl1w0u5GhiBusMFOQR-u5waFOSXrgypV0Nxe9gh5y3i-s2R3lHeYdkahWhrsE/s1600/Eagle+of+the+Minories+Side+left+with+watermark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbc1vIgIdKYThW0FkzK7xyAnHDbyLzfAcVnAHDZELa276F4J_D5modpXqxaqxyqJsg-4u_OTJvl00Mavl1w0u5GhiBusMFOQR-u5waFOSXrgypV0Nxe9gh5y3i-s2R3lHeYdkahWhrsE/s320/Eagle+of+the+Minories+Side+left+with+watermark.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-57796975292364023072013-06-28T18:17:00.000+01:002013-06-28T18:17:01.553+01:00John Tzimiskes: The First Crusader<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The barbaric <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_crusade">Crusades</a> done by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks#Carolingian_empire_.28751.E2.80.93843.29">Franks</a>, which saw anyone who was non-Catholic Christian, killed or persecuted have left an indelible mark on Humanity.<br />
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However, 124 years ealier, before those fateful incursions into Anatolia, Syria and the Holy Land, Christian armies had campaigned into Syria and the Holy Land, and if events had been different there may never have been a reason for the Franks to invade.<br />
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In 975 A.D. the Byzantine emperor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tzimiskes">John Tzimiskes</a>, led contingents from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_themes">Byzantine Themes</a> and allied cavalry from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Armenia_%28Middle_Ages%29">Bagratuni</a> kingdom of Armenia, into Syria and the Holy Land.<br />
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The catalyst for the invasion was the fierce invasions of Syria and the Holy Land by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia">Shia</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimid_Caliphate">Fatimid Caliphate</a>, which was resisted by not only the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islam">Sunni</a> communities but by the Christian as well.<br />
The Fatimids objective has to conquer the entire Islamic world or bring it into subjection.<br />
They had conquered Egypt in 969 A.D.<br />
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Seldom mentioned in online sources is the fact that Syria and the northern Holy Land was occupied by the armies of John Tzimiskes by 976 A.D. and even after his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Lekapenos">mysterious death</a>, the lands remained under Byzantine control for another 19 years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm46Js0X7sQWGMHvAJ_Xr4sSUwZ4shOMaChwS84MIvnrdKlFvnzzu-IjkOPtJlnTTCYTp5BcudJKlxDEmqS7Lk15Or_XPaddAYCx3O75EHT6jtSyZNvR5J-cDf2T_Dz2vGXstXzTUip2U/s705/985+copyrighted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm46Js0X7sQWGMHvAJ_Xr4sSUwZ4shOMaChwS84MIvnrdKlFvnzzu-IjkOPtJlnTTCYTp5BcudJKlxDEmqS7Lk15Or_XPaddAYCx3O75EHT6jtSyZNvR5J-cDf2T_Dz2vGXstXzTUip2U/s320/985+copyrighted.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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By 987 A.D. the Fatimids had retaken the lands, a seven year truce was drawn between the emperor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_the_Bulgar_Slayer#Campaigns_against_the_Fatimid_Caliphate">Basil II</a> and the Caliph <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Mansoor_Nizar_al-Aziz_Billah">al-Aziz Billah</a>, though peace would not last long.<br />
<br />
Read John <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Julius_Norwich">Julius Norwich</a>'s "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0394537793">Byzantium: The Apogee</a>" to learn in an entertaining way to life of John Tzimiskes.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-70383843845682654162013-03-05T15:04:00.002+00:002013-03-05T15:04:54.029+00:00Roman Triumphalism in 5th century coinage.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
During the 5th century AD the depiction of the western Emperors on their coins subduing or with their foot on a "Barbarian" increased, and it seemed to tally with the increase in the real power "Barbarians" had in the western Empire.<br /><br />I noticed that in the gold coinage of the late Western empire, the emperor was depicted with his foot on the head of a Barbarian.<br />
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<a href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/valentinian_III/RIC_2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/valentinian_III/RIC_2010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><a href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/vale...RIC_2010.txt">http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/vale...RIC_2010.txt</a><br />This type is described as a "Human Headed Serpent".<br /><br />(There may well be some Christian symbolism, using a Serpent as an "evil emblem", ironic when we recall the "pagan" Salus types were the snake was revered.)<br /><br />That "Human Headed Serpent" might be just a decapited head of a long haired "Barbarian" such as a Burgundian, of which it is well known they wore their hair long.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/jW3VZWjUVvw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br />The irony was, that it was these "Barbarians" whose feet began to make their impact on the "head" of the western Roman empire, making and breaking "emperors" who became mere puppets, a trend which continued unabated until the forced abdication of Romulus "Augustulus" in 476 AD.<br /><br />Julius Nepos, a rival western emperor, held out in the province of Dalmatia until 480 AD, when he was killed by his own army, which is likely to have mostly consisted of "Barbarians".<br /><br />Then Syagrius, the last Magister Militum of Gaul, overthrown by the Franks, fled south to the Visigoths, then sent back north to the Franks and then assassinated by order of the Frankish king in 486 AD.<br /><br />But I have not seen any "Barbarian" coins with the king depicted with his foot on the head of a Roman, but then the Roman civilians outnumbered the "Barbarians", seeing a coin with a depiction of one of them beheaded, under the foot of a "barbarian" king would have caused a rebellion.<br /><a href="http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.01.htm#s2">http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.01.htm#s2</a><br />
<br />So we see the propaganda power that coins have, and for the "Barbarians", using coinage to show them as the continuators of "Romanitas" was just as an effective weapon in the subduing and control of the former Roman provinces as any levies they could muster.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/M%C3%BCnze_Gold_Solidus_Theudebert_I_um_534.jpg/800px-M%C3%BCnze_Gold_Solidus_Theudebert_I_um_534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="157" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/M%C3%BCnze_Gold_Solidus_Theudebert_I_um_534.jpg/800px-M%C3%BCnze_Gold_Solidus_Theudebert_I_um_534.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gold Solidus of the Frankish king, Theudebert I, circa 534 AD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And so we are left with wondering who were the real "barbarians"? The non-Romans, who lived in structured societies, with laws and an established religion, or the Romans, whose city began as a refuge for bandits and other outcasts in the 8th century BC?</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-79954928502353348732013-02-10T17:43:00.003+00:002013-03-26T21:05:29.951+00:00Time Team, Time Over?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In October 2012, Channel 4 decided that 2013 will be the final Time Team series, with a few special episodes to be shown in 2014.<br />
The reasons for axing the show are that the Ratings have dropped, to around 700,000 viewers per episode.<br />
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<br />
Time Team began in 1994.<br />
Initially the concept was about excavating potential archaeology in homeowners gardens, with three days to find out as much as possible.<br />
<b>The number of episodes was four</b>. <br />
<br />
Tony Robinson, who then was well known from "Blackadder", "Maid Marian and her Merry Men" as well as numerous history documentaries such as "Boudicca", all for the BBC.<br />
He brought his passion for history to Time Team, in the early episodes even reading source information on the subjects being investigated.<br />
There was a fast pace to the concept as well.<br />
<br />
Becoming popular, in hindsight Channel 4 overstretched Time Team.<br />
Both by giving them extensive fields to survey and excavate and also the number of episodes, <b>in series six, 1999, for example going up to thirteen episodes</b>.<br />
<br />
The three day format could never cover the potential that lay in extensive fields and large ancient complexes, often much more was being found out in the final hours of the third day and the Team had to stop.<br />
For viewers it was a put off, it not being easy to find out more on the further work undertaken on the sites by other archaeological groups.<br />
<br />
Perhaps if a few large sites were chosen and numerous episodes given over to them so that as much as possible could be found out without a "three day limitation"?<br />
This sort of happened with the special episodes.<br />
<br />
What the later series showed is that there is a lot out there in the UK and beyond to learn and discover about the past, and that a wide range of people are interested in this.<br />
<br />
Because Channel 4 has changed (for the worst?) since it started in 1982, it seems that Time Team is too much for it to maintain.<br />
They moved the production team from London to Cardiff which did no good, and also brought in two new presenters, <span class="st">Alex Langlands (best known from BBC 2's "Edwardian Farm") and Mary Ann Ochota (a broadcaster, Anthropologist and model).</span><br />
<span class="st">It seems that for viewers it was a change too much, and perhaps the "writting was on the wall" well before series nineteen because of the way the series had become. </span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">Team members such as Professor Mick Aston, Phil Harding, John Gater, Stewart Ainsworth, the late Robin Bush, </span><span class="st"><span class="st">Doctor Carenza Lewis</span>, Ian Polesland, </span><span class="st">Mick Worthington, Raysan al-Kubaisi, Victor Ambrose, Brigid Gallagher, Matt Williams and Raksha Dave have added their own unique views and talents to produce results, as well as all the other experts. <b>They have all become National Treasures in their own right because of making viewers aware of prehistoric and historic national treasures.</b></span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">The BBC has dabbled in some archaeological programs but nothing to the consistency of Time Team.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">The pursuit and discover of our past does not end with the end of Time Team, and of course the academic world will not end with it (though it is stated that Phil Harding and Doctor Carenza Lewis have written more field reports than most universities put together).</span><br />
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<span class="st">TV has its Niche programs, so surely it is obvious there still is a Nich audience who like history?</span><br />
<span class="st">After all, there is now a "Yesterday" channel, about history, that even shows repeats of Time Team.</span></div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-73537310781107227992013-01-09T23:35:00.001+00:002014-02-28T17:27:57.260+00:00The "Valens" bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Saw this bust said to be of the eastern emperor Valens in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, on the Wikipedia page for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens">Valens</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Valens_Honorius_Musei_Capitolini_MC494.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Valens_Honorius_Musei_Capitolini_MC494.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
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The odd thing is that it depicts a young man, a boy even.<br />
The bust is also said to depict the 5th century western emperor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorius_%28emperor%29">Honorius</a>. <br />
Yet the bust does not wear a Diadem, as a typical 4th and 5th century Roman emperor would be depicted.<br />
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The features still have that "vacant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrarchy#Public_image">Tetrarchic </a>gaze" to it, though clearly it is of the "neo-Classical" style brought in by Constantine I, which saw imagery that harked back to the golden era of the empire, such as the Julio-Claudians and Antonines.<br />
In fact, the bust looks similar to the colossal bust of Constantine I in the Capitoline Museum.<br />
This bust is actually re-cut from its original, made for the Emperor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxentius">Maxentius</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Rome-Capitole-StatueConstantin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Rome-Capitole-StatueConstantin.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Maxentius02_pushkin.jpg/220px-Maxentius02_pushkin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Maxentius02_pushkin.jpg/220px-Maxentius02_pushkin.jpg" /></a></div>
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I wonder if this "Valens/Honorius" bust actually depicts Constantine's first born son, Crispus.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Solidus-Crispus-sirmium_RIC_-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Solidus-Crispus-sirmium_RIC_-.jpg" height="147" width="320" /></a></div>
He was made Caesar on the 1st of March 317 AD.<br />
He had a pivotal role in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hellespont">Battle of the Hellespont</a>, which saw the defeat of the eastern emperor, Licinius I, and paved the way for the foundation of Constantinople.<br />
Tragically, Crispus' greatness brought the evil eye of envy and he was framed, and later executed by order of his father!<br />
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The features of the bust resemble most this tragic man, victim of his father's envy, Crispus.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-3597674710631943152013-01-09T22:58:00.001+00:002016-12-16T01:27:29.484+00:00The "Colossus of Barletta", a statue of Valentinian I?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I first became aware of this statue when I saw a photo of it in John Julius Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early Centuries" and saw it again recently in the BBC's "Treasures of Ancient Rome", where the statue was referred to as always looking as it did, holding a Medieval Latin cross in its right hand.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Colosso_di_Barletta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Colosso_di_Barletta.jpg" width="235" /></a></div>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Barletta">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Barletta</a><br />
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The statue is variously said to either have been found in Ravenna in the 13th century or on the coast of Barletta after the Fourth Crusade in 1204 AD, the result of a Venetian shipwreck, stuffed with loot from Constantinople.<br />
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The Dominican Friars are said to have hacked of the arms and legs to use the bronze to cast bells, in other sources the statue was said to already have been missing its arms and legs when found on the beach of Barletta.<br />
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What can be said is the arms and legs, though made to match the style of the statue, are replacements.<br />
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To me, the small Latin Cross did look "odd" against the Colossus, and the plain globe in the left hand seemed to be missing a Victory upon it.<br />
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Who the Emperor is, is still not known.<br />
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Eusebius, in his Historia Ecclesiae, in his writings on Constantine I, reported that after Constantine's victorious entry into Rome after the battle of the Milvian Bridge, the Emperor had a statue of himself created, "holding the sign of the Savior in his right hand" which may well be the Labarum.<br />
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Only the hairstyle does not resemble the well known, Colossal bust of Constantine that is now at the Capitoline Museum.<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Constantine">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Constantine</a><br />
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The features do look like Jovian as depicted on his coinage, and his reversal of the Pagan policies of Julian II would be an explanation for having such a Christian triumphal statue made, however Jovian never made it to Constantinople, never mind Ravenna, dying at a place called Dadastana in Asia Minor, after barely eight months of rule.<br />
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Valentinian I could be a contender, the hairstyle, the arched eye brows, cheek bones, jaw line etc.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/ValentinianI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/ValentinianI.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinian_I">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinian_I</a><br />
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In comparision, Gratian's features on his coins do not resemble the Colossus. Though on his coins Victory appears, he did not object to the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate house. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratian">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratian</a><br />
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Theodosius I? Again, in comparsion with the features of Valentinian I, his does not resemble the statue's. Victory still appeared on his coinage. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_I">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_I</a><br />
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Would the impoverished western Emperors of the 5th century have had the resources to make a huge statue of themselves?<br />
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Eastern Emperors such as Marcian and Leo I are also suggested, but unless the statue really was looted from Constantinople in 1204 AD, why would an eastern Emperor have a statue of themself set up in Ravenna?<br />
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Justinian I is another Emperor that the statue is thought to be of, but the well known mosaic of Justinian in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, shows him with curly hair. Not a match.<br />
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Heraclius is another suggestion, certainly on the Tremissis he had minted, his bust matches the style of the face of the Barletta Colossus.<br />
<a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?zpg=16872">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?zpg=16872</a><br />
Heraclius was celebrated in the west after his victory against Persia and the recovery of Jerusalem, but by that date he is depicted as bearded.<br />
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Thinking that instead of the Medieval Latin Cross held in his right hand, the statue held the Labarum, and in his left hand it was Victory that stood upon the globe, I drew this sketch of what the Colossus may have originally looked like.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EFnVlFYJdbwQCkkT_kIJTt9PAgXYbDnH4Mlu3enitDd3fCDdNTre21pMXzTkPhqXrPj-uM_bE1UW2AInRQF5mjUMIVg55Wjoxb4MtQvlYlD9lONG1__4L_SXRiN8ktnV-5YVQEWLmLs/s1600/colossus+valentinian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EFnVlFYJdbwQCkkT_kIJTt9PAgXYbDnH4Mlu3enitDd3fCDdNTre21pMXzTkPhqXrPj-uM_bE1UW2AInRQF5mjUMIVg55Wjoxb4MtQvlYlD9lONG1__4L_SXRiN8ktnV-5YVQEWLmLs/s320/colossus+valentinian.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
Amongst all potential imperial candidates the statue could be of, the features of Valentinian I looks the closest, and he had the means to have such a statue made.<br />
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However, if it is of Valentinian I, Ravenna would not be the original city of the statue, since it did not become the official capital of the Western Roman empire until 402 AD, 27 years after the death of Valentinian I.<br />
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The statue that was said to have been found in Ravenna in 1232 AD by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, is not said to have been this.<br />
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Quite how a Venetian galley, stuffed with loot from the sack of Constantinople in 1204 AD, would choose to avoid the Adriatic and head instead for the north coast of Sicily and promptly sink, seems odd.<br />
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Maybe the statue was taken as loot during the Vandal sack of Rome in 455 AD, one of their boats that carried this statue, along with other "loot" being wrecked of the north Sicilian coast, en route to Carthage.<br />
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I wonder if during the sack of Rome, by the Arab emirate of Africa in 846 AD, this was part of the "loot" taken back to their new base of Palermo (conquered by them in 831 AD), and it was then that the statue was "lost" in a shipwreck of the coast of Barletta.<br />
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There was a previous example of a more famous "Colossus" being taken away for scrap by a Caliphal army.<br />
The Colossus of Rhodes, after falling down to an earthquake in 226 BC, in 654 AD its remains were taken by the army of Caliph Muawiyah I, which had conquered Rhodes, and sold off for scrap.<br />
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Also the Norman sack of Rome in 1084 AD, may be another explanation for how an imperial statue, likely from Rome, ended up as wreckage of the north Sicilian coast, since the Normans, by 1084 AD, had control of Sicily.<br />
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Ironically, having a look through my copy of "Romano-Byzantine Armies 4th–9th Centuries" by Osprey Publishing, on page 9 is a photo of the Colossus of Barletta, where the author, David Nicolle, states that the statue probably is of Valentinian I.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-91290226038559763952012-12-29T21:18:00.002+00:002012-12-29T21:18:59.366+00:00Tufa bust of man, found in Yerevan, 200 A D<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is my rendering from my sketch of a bust of a man, said to have been found in Yerevan and dated to 200 A D.<br />The stone was Tufa and of a purplish colour.<br />It was about 30 cm from the top of the head to the bottom of the neck.<br /><br />What strikes me is the appearance it has to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoninus_Pius">Antoninus Pius</a>, particularly the eyes.<br /><br />The clay statuettes I reckon are the work of Romans for Romans, occupying Armenia, at least during the time of Marcus Aurelius.<br />If this bust is meant to depict Antoninus Pius, it would make sense. Though Yerevan in that era did not exist, there were only the ruined Urartuan settlements of Erebuni, Garmir-Blur and Arinberd to the south-east and south.<br />However during the 1930's when the "Moscow Cinema" was built in Yerevan, two columns were found, underneath the church of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul_and_Peter_Church">St. Paul and Peter</a> that was demolished to make way for the cinema.<br />So there was at least a temple in the Roman era, were Yerevan now is.<br />
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-13032372440795418172012-12-28T16:23:00.000+00:002012-12-28T16:23:16.379+00:00Cybele statuette, National Museum Of Armenia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My rendering of 1 of 5 statuettes of what was labelled as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele">Kibela</a>/Artemis/Aphrodite" on display in the Roman section of the National Museum Of Armenia.<br />Two of them depicted her nursing an infant, as shown.<br />The statuettes were labelled as being found in three sites, Artashat (Artaxata), Armavir and Vagharshapat.<br />The dates given were 200 A D.<br />They were all around 180 mm in height.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQscsBKqelJ_QTIp_9ro1D_WDC7a331SDl3f4J-ss4GsFVuQo5aSMPnK3aN7gwJTiAqhsQBz58tIoybtCgAHdBnfCBNymb_rAQAxbUGBNVP6mLw3OXVWqav8BQaTVA0cN_Q22uNyLOc0/s1600/Anahita.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQscsBKqelJ_QTIp_9ro1D_WDC7a331SDl3f4J-ss4GsFVuQo5aSMPnK3aN7gwJTiAqhsQBz58tIoybtCgAHdBnfCBNymb_rAQAxbUGBNVP6mLw3OXVWqav8BQaTVA0cN_Q22uNyLOc0/s320/Anahita.bmp" width="233" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-75641281405399776442012-12-26T23:06:00.003+00:002012-12-28T16:30:09.215+00:00Ionic column, fragment, Artashat, National Museum Of Armenia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is my sketch of two sections of an Ionic column from the National Museum Of Armenia, followed by a photo I took in July 2011 of a block of Limestone in situ at old Artaxata (modern Khor Virap), the only visable fragment left of the old city.<br />
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Also a screen shot from Google Maps© where I have marked the location of that Limestone block in relation to the modern church site of Khor Virap.<br />
Note also in the screenshot a rectalingular shape on the ground to the north of that block, below the walls of the church.<br />
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The column sections were about 70 cm in diametre, that block was about 60 x 60 cm and likely formed the foundation of a temple, if not the same temple the column sections came from.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_DZjnPC6lU27y7RO44_xNELizojLtmk_CKpoc_Rdup6PQuGFhZijtmKtlVvdnR9QtQfF2k_Ho7RDmJtoDVxS3_PXowYgk-4oDAzdLb5xgonMbG6QIL2ibERemFu47L66zvogftlNK6Q/s1600/Artashat+column+fragment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_DZjnPC6lU27y7RO44_xNELizojLtmk_CKpoc_Rdup6PQuGFhZijtmKtlVvdnR9QtQfF2k_Ho7RDmJtoDVxS3_PXowYgk-4oDAzdLb5xgonMbG6QIL2ibERemFu47L66zvogftlNK6Q/s1600/Artashat+column+fragment.jpg" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-85721734338199067122012-12-26T23:03:00.000+00:002012-12-28T16:25:29.932+00:00Mithra statuette, National Museum Of Armenia, Yerevan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is my rendering from my sketch of a clay statuette, 1 of 9 on display in the National Museum Of Armenia, Yerevan, said to be of the god Mihr (Mithra).<br />
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All of the statuettes were about 150 mm in height, with no paint remaining on them, if they ever were painted.<br />
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The statuettes were stated to have been found at various sites in Armenia, from the cities of Artashat (Artaxata), Armavir and Vagharshapat.<br />
The date given was 200 A D, though it is obviously a rough guess for a date.<br />
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The god Mihr, a Parthian equivalent to the Avestan god Mithra, never gained as much popularity in ancient Armenia as the god Vahagn (Avestan: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verethragna">Verethragna</a>) had.<br />
And he, along with other deities, Urartuan, Semetic and Avestan (with their Hellenic equivalents) were worshipped long before 200 A D.<br />
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The body and the head are combined from two fragments, though all of the statuette heads wore this "hood".<br />
A few of the statuette were riding a horse that was rearing up, whilst the god had his head turned to the right, facing and smiling.<br />
On those statuettes the costume seemed to be a type of loose silk garment with many folds.<br />
On those and the few statuettes of him standing, he wears this "hooded-coat".<br />
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The sleeve of the coat, I am not sure if it is a complete sleeve or a long flap, as seen in the traditional male costumes of Armenia and Georgia.<br />
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Also of note, the sword is positioned in the Roman Legionary manner, on the right hand side of the belt.<br />
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This type of cloak is seen in Median art, such as in the tomb of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyaxares">Cyaxares</a>, (585 B C) in the autonomous district of Kurdistan, Iraq.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAU6R_per784hTjCsM_jeHIRfdoK0VdpfxjcpG3znLWW2HkT6DUpgARqQVnn3O5WI6AyVN9uW6pTzt99mCODt0cIB4gsdA9VJa5FENw7OnLxG-qrpztxYMRJk2NUsswiVNe27tLiaY2o/s1600/Kashtariti+(Kyaxares)+of+Media.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAU6R_per784hTjCsM_jeHIRfdoK0VdpfxjcpG3znLWW2HkT6DUpgARqQVnn3O5WI6AyVN9uW6pTzt99mCODt0cIB4gsdA9VJa5FENw7OnLxG-qrpztxYMRJk2NUsswiVNe27tLiaY2o/s320/Kashtariti+(Kyaxares)+of+Media.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-38474374062824183832012-12-26T22:51:00.004+00:002012-12-28T16:31:51.481+00:00Turquoise plate, Aramaic, Armenia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is my rendering from my sketch of the reverse of a plate in the National Museum Of Armenia, 2011.<br />
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The colour of the plate was Turquoise, yet it glistened.<br />
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On the reverse was an inscription in Imperial Aramaic.<br />
<a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm">http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm</a><br />
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The plate was about 170 mm in diametre.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNSVb7WlJ-SlRtpy3bq3z8ip9pbVa5NQ6DpQp2xcGn2OWniFc4buSln-IqN-UKYkS7IGKJqqEYwFBMyrsnnFQi87-HWChFvBbij63ecrBWUosadb5LunX39xOF5f7VyHen2k9GX3GUYc/s1600/Turquoise+bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNSVb7WlJ-SlRtpy3bq3z8ip9pbVa5NQ6DpQp2xcGn2OWniFc4buSln-IqN-UKYkS7IGKJqqEYwFBMyrsnnFQi87-HWChFvBbij63ecrBWUosadb5LunX39xOF5f7VyHen2k9GX3GUYc/s320/Turquoise+bowl.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-3266155259962619022012-12-26T22:50:00.000+00:002012-12-28T16:33:37.386+00:00Greek Tufa Plaque, from Vagharshapat, Armenia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is my rendering from my sketch taken of a plaque in the Roman section of the National Museum Of Armenia, Yerevan, in 2011.<br />
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The text is taken from what I wrote and could see. <br />
Certain parts of the text have been worn off, but it looks more random, such as a fall, than deliberate chiseling off.<br />
The plaque is in the typical Roman "notice board" style, so though the letters are Greek, it must date from the Roman occupation of Armenia, perhaps the occupation of 163 - 186 A D.<br />
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The museum description gave the location of its find as Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) with a dating of 165 A D, and if it is a reliable date, that era would be the campaign of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Verus#War_with_Parthia.2C_161.E2.80.9366">Lucius Verus</a>.<br />
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The stone is Tufa, and of an orange colour, the length was about 1.5 metres.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmM6-NoHfgZgsQrevmaSnj51NOvwxF0EzHo7PB8AJ_ifpJ3PY9nw5bm2qmInYrdhNOadO-KMfklMQZ07XYbuOad29Q92y3KF0vYOwUfAQ-jPi956vljOkA5zxCFtK7_ncqsCNNZIiA0IY/s1600/Vagharshapat+tufa+plaque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmM6-NoHfgZgsQrevmaSnj51NOvwxF0EzHo7PB8AJ_ifpJ3PY9nw5bm2qmInYrdhNOadO-KMfklMQZ07XYbuOad29Q92y3KF0vYOwUfAQ-jPi956vljOkA5zxCFtK7_ncqsCNNZIiA0IY/s320/Vagharshapat+tufa+plaque.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2560378764204053094.post-16134039666161605352012-12-26T22:46:00.000+00:002013-01-09T23:16:48.547+00:00Legion XV Apollinaris, plaque, Vagharshapat, Armenia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You may recall a previous post of mine, my sketch of a fragmentary Roman plaque in the National Museum Of Armenia, Yerevan.<br />
That turned out to be commemorating a work done by the Legion IIII Scythica in the Armenian capital, Artashat, which had come under Roman control in 116 A D.<br />
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The following is taken from another sketch of a Roman plaque in that museum, this was found in the old Arsacid town of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) said to be made by Legionaries and the date given was 185 A D.<br />
It is about 1.5 metres in length, and about 1 metre in width.<br />
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The following is taken from my sketch.<br />
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_ = where a sentence has been deliberately chisiled away, defaced.<br />
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<b>IMP ● CAES ● M AVREL ANTO<br />NINO AVG _ GER<br />MN SARM MAX TRIB ● POT<br />IMP ● VII COS III P P VEX III<br />LES XV APOII SVB CAEIIOCM<br />VINO LEG AVG P P_<br />AGENIELLCIN LOS NIVRN EN OIPIB<br />MILEI AVRELIA BRA SEN EC EIV SOEM</b><br />
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From what I could find, the emperor stated was likely to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius">Marcus Aurelius</a>, rather than the other "Marcus Aurelius Antoninus" otherwise known as Caracalla.<br />
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Lucius Verus campaigned into Armenia and Parthia from 161–166 A D, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legio_XV_Apollinaris">Legio XV Apollinaris</a>, based at Satala in Cappadocia, took a major part in that campaign.<br />
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The sentences "CAEIIOCM<br />
VINO LEG AVG P P_<br />
AGENIELLCIN LOS NIVRN EN OIPIB<br />
MILEI AVRELIA BRA SEN EC EIV SOEM" did not make any sense, though I sketched them down.<br />
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The "<b>VEX III</b>" I think is actually "VEXILL" and that the plaque notes the work of a Vexillationes (detachment) from the Legion XV Apollinaris.<br />
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Still trying to figure out the rest of the wording, I wondered if the word "AVRELIA" may have been the Roman name for Vagharshapat.<br />
After all, during the occupation of Armenia from 163 - 186 A D, the old Armenian capital, Artaxata, was renamed to "Kaine Polis".<br />
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On learning that Legion XV Apollinaris was based at the fort of Satala, I was curious to learn about this place, and came across the MAVORS Institute for Ancient Military History, website.<br />
<a href="http://www.mavors.org/en/projects_3.htm">http://www.mavors.org/en/projects_3.htm</a><br />
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With thanks to Dr. Michael Speidel of MAVORS as he replied to my e-mail on what I thought was a new reference to Legion XV Apollinaris on a Roman plaque.<br />
It turned out it was recorded over 100 years ago by an incredible scholar, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Dessau">Hermann Dessau</a>, in his monumental work, "Inscriptiones latinae selectae".<br />
<a href="http://archive.org/stream/inscriptioneslat01dessuoft#page/n11/mode/2up">http://archive.org/stream/inscriptioneslat01dessuoft#page/n11/mode/2up</a><br /><br />Below is my rendering of what the plaque states. Rather than Marcus Aurelius, it is in the name of his son, Commodus.<br />However, like all his monuments and inscriptions, it got "Damnatio Memoriae".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsbzHiF6l0dHHktSjhM_43L63FvDozfr-ccXUpxjOGrpOeAL68KtVydPen4a5adRMprR24qI5bEgvQaAv7owM3iN87nrlq03_r94FsUJnUbRAxgW16JxJ8AW65wCxbwJRbjUfFx59F8DM/s1600/Roman+plaque+Armenia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsbzHiF6l0dHHktSjhM_43L63FvDozfr-ccXUpxjOGrpOeAL68KtVydPen4a5adRMprR24qI5bEgvQaAv7owM3iN87nrlq03_r94FsUJnUbRAxgW16JxJ8AW65wCxbwJRbjUfFx59F8DM/s320/Roman+plaque+Armenia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A member (Sharum) on <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=85049.0">Forum Ancient Coins</a> stated that the father of the emperor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balbinus">Balbinus </a>is mentioned on this plaque, Caelius Calvinus.<br />
He was the legate of Cappadocia in and around 184 A D.</div>
Masishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14199857695410816502noreply@blogger.com0