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Author: Gary R. Varner Publisher: Algora Publishing ISBN: 0875863515 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 234
Book Description
Why are some rocks simply tossed out of the way, while others, regardless of their size, are held as sacred, mysterious and imbued with power? Humans since the dawn of civilization have used stone to represent the holy, both by fashioning sacred symbols for themselves and by granting recognition to certain sites occurring naturally. Varner shares his love of nature lore, oral traditions, folklore and ancient religious structures that are still so abundant in the world, and offers insights on the history and the technology of these artifacts, while touching on the importance of preserving a sense of reverence in today's world. This study examines the universal appeal of sites from the Dome of the Rock and Stonehenge to sites sacred to the Inuit and the Cherokees, from the Middle East to the American Midwest and the English Midlands. Philosopher-historian Mircea Eliade wrote, "a rock reveals itself to be sacred because its very existence is a hierophany: incompressible, invulnerable, it is that which man is not. It resists time; its reality is coupled with perenniality." The properties of stone were recognized as unique early in humankind's rise to civilization. Even when cultures were transitioning their technologies from stone to metal, it was stone that was used for ritual and other important acts. Early 20th-century Egyptologist Wallis Budge wrote, "in a tomb of the VIth Dynasty at Sakkrah, when the Egyptians had a good knowledge of working in metals, we see in a painting on the wall the act of circumcision being performed on a youth by an operator who uses a flint knife." Little do the keepers of worry stones today realize that they are practicing one of the ancient traditions of transferring their problems to an inanimate object. This volume looks at customs and traditions from around the world, from the curious to the profound, related to stones large and small, from prehistory to today.
Author: Gary R. Varner Publisher: Algora Publishing ISBN: 0875863515 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 234
Book Description
Why are some rocks simply tossed out of the way, while others, regardless of their size, are held as sacred, mysterious and imbued with power? Humans since the dawn of civilization have used stone to represent the holy, both by fashioning sacred symbols for themselves and by granting recognition to certain sites occurring naturally. Varner shares his love of nature lore, oral traditions, folklore and ancient religious structures that are still so abundant in the world, and offers insights on the history and the technology of these artifacts, while touching on the importance of preserving a sense of reverence in today's world. This study examines the universal appeal of sites from the Dome of the Rock and Stonehenge to sites sacred to the Inuit and the Cherokees, from the Middle East to the American Midwest and the English Midlands. Philosopher-historian Mircea Eliade wrote, "a rock reveals itself to be sacred because its very existence is a hierophany: incompressible, invulnerable, it is that which man is not. It resists time; its reality is coupled with perenniality." The properties of stone were recognized as unique early in humankind's rise to civilization. Even when cultures were transitioning their technologies from stone to metal, it was stone that was used for ritual and other important acts. Early 20th-century Egyptologist Wallis Budge wrote, "in a tomb of the VIth Dynasty at Sakkrah, when the Egyptians had a good knowledge of working in metals, we see in a painting on the wall the act of circumcision being performed on a youth by an operator who uses a flint knife." Little do the keepers of worry stones today realize that they are practicing one of the ancient traditions of transferring their problems to an inanimate object. This volume looks at customs and traditions from around the world, from the curious to the profound, related to stones large and small, from prehistory to today.
Author: Alberto Pozzi Publisher: Universal-Publishers ISBN: 1612332552 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 403
Book Description
Megalithism, or the art of using huge boulders to create sacred, pagan monuments and sites, still fascinates us today. How did Prehistoric man cut, transport, and place such enormous stones, some weighing up to 200 metric tons, without bulldozers, drills, and cranes? Yet primitive man, without the written word or wheel, created structures which still stupefy us in the 21st century, both due to their components and the precision used in positioning them. This book takes us back in time to the 5th-2nd millennia B.C. and helps us visualise the Stone Age world and its constructions - menhirs, dolmens, rows and circles of standing stones. Undoubtedly they were sacred places, used for pagan rituals and funerary purposes, but the author also gives us details of their astronomic and physical alignment, which clearly demonstrates the knowledge of the heavens these ancestors had and how they applied it without slide-rules, set squares, and theodolites. The high priests of ancient times could calculate when the solstices and equinoxes would occur and thus regulate the seasons for sowing and reaping. The author's careful and updated identification of all such structures leads us through 'Ancient European Megalithism' complete with the religious and social aspects of it and its pagan legacies. He does not neglect forms of 'sub-actual' megalithism either - the use of massive stones by peoples described as primitive but with a relatively advanced culture who lived in times closer to our own in Africa, Asia, and South America. The myths and legends arising from the megalithic structures are recounted here in detail; the author also describes megalithic art in the form of statue-stele and menhir statues, as well as the often intricate decoration carved on single stones and in construction such as dolmens, funerary mounds, astronomic observatories, and temples. He also describes studies and experiments on the methods of transport and construction used by Prehistoric peoples, together with conflicting opinions and theories. Amply illustrated with photographs and drawings, Megalithism guides the reader through every part of the megalithic world with smooth-flowing text that will be accessible to specialists and interested general public alike.
Author: Julian Cope Publisher: HarperThorsons ISBN: 9780722535998 Category : Antiquities, Prehistoric Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In this unique guide to Britain's megalithic culture, rock n' roller Julian Cope provides an inspired fusion of travel, history, poetry, maps, field notes, and pure passion.
Author: John G. R. Forlong Publisher: Cosimo, Inc. ISBN: 1605204897 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 538
Book Description
From a decree of Charlemagne in 789 A.C. we see that human sacrifices were still common in his barbarous empire. especially among pagan Saxons. They did not begin to die out till the 9th century. Unable to prevent the sacrifice of cattle at ancient shrines, Gregory I (600 A.C.) instructed his missionaries that these were to be offered up to God and to Christ, at the new churches which often were the old sacred circles... -from "sacrifice" This 1906 classic of comparative literature, hard to find in print today, was the first English-language project to approach the world's religions from an anthropological perspective. The work of thirty years for Scottish author JAMES G. R. FORLONG (1824-1904), it was originally published under the now-antiquated title A Cyclopedia of Religions and produced at the author's own expense, so strongly did he feel about the need for it despite the reluctance of the publishing houses of the day to produce it. A road engineer by trade, Forlong traveled the world, learning seven languages and becoming an avid amateur student of native culture-his labor of love was gathering, in this three-volume set, a comprehensive, academic knowledge of the totality of human religious belief. Volume III: N-Z includes entries on such gods, peoples, places, practices, symbols, and concepts as: Na'aman, naga, oaths, and Odin pagoda, Pantheism, and Quakers Ra, runes, Shin-to, and Sophists talisman, Tertullian, unicorn, and Upanishads vana, wells, Yggdrasil, and Zeus and much more.
Author: Luc Laporte Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd ISBN: 1803273216 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 1436
Book Description
Bringing together the latest research on megalithic monuments throughout the world, 150 researchers offer 72 articles, providing a region-by region account in their specialist areas, and a summary of the current state of knowledge. Highlighting salient themes, the book is vital to anyone interested in the phenomenon of megalithic monumentality.
Author: Himanshu Prabha Ray Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000220737 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 319
Book Description
This book examines knowledge traditions that held together the fluid and overlapping maritime worlds of the Indian Ocean in the premodern period, as evident in the material and archaeological record. It breaks new ground by shifting the focus from studying cross-pollination of ideas from textual sources to identifying this exchange of ideas in archaeological and historical documentation. The themes covered in the book include conceptualization of the seas and maritime landscapes in Sanskrit, Arabic and Chinese narratives; materiality of knowledge production as indicated in the archaeological record of communities where writing on stone first appears; and anchoring the coasts, not only through an understanding of littoral shrines and ritual landscapes, but also by an analysis of religious imagery on coins, more so at the time of the introduction of new religions such as Islam in the Indian Ocean around the eighth century. This volume will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, museum and heritage studies, Indian Ocean studies, maritime studies, South and Southeast Asian studies, religious studies and cultural studies.
Author: Gary R. Varner
Author: Gary R. Varner
Author: Rupert Soskin
Author: Alberto Pozzi
Author: Jacques Briard
Author: Julian Cope
Author: John G. R. Forlong
Author: James George Roche Forlong
Author: Luc Laporte
Author: Himanshu Prabha Ray
Author: H.R. van Heekeren