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The Festival of Drunkenness
No, dear reader, this is not Panama City on Spring Break. This is an actual religious festival from ancient Egypt. We have discussed how beer played a part in religious festivals, and that the Sumerians actually had a goddess specifically for it. (For more on Nin-kasi, please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/nin-kasi-lady-fills-mouth-beer/ ) There was an importance placed on beer in Egyptian culture as well. The source of this festival is a mythological story of how beer saved the world. The story goes that Re, the sun god, was frankly salty about the “duplicitousness” of mankind and called his children together to discuss it. A Council of the Gods is called,…
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Clava Cairns
The main attraction in the area around Inverness is the site of the Battle of Culloden. However, there is another site nearby that is also an important part of Scotland’s past. One mile southeast of the battlefield set on a terrace above the River Nairn are the Clava Cairns also called the Balnuaran of Clava. These are three cairns and a number of free standing stones which date from the late Neolithic period. Although it is thought by scholars that there may have been at least two additional structures, the three that are left have been designated the Northeast Cairn, Central Cairn and Southwest Cairn. These site is thought to…
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The Vanishing Persian Army of Cambyses
When your dad is Cyrus the Great, you have a lot to live up to. He began the Achaemenid Empire and reigned over the territory from Asia Minor to India. Unfortunately, Cyrus met his match in a warrior queen named Tomyris and went to his long home. (More on her in this post: http://www.historynaked.com/tomyris-the-woman-who-brought-down-cyrus-the-great/ ) This left his son Cambyses in charge. There had been a bit of trouble when he was overseeing things for his father in Babylon. No one is quite sure, but the Chronicle of Nabonidus indicates there was an issue during the very important New Year’s Akitu festival. Possibly with Cambyses being armed during the ceremony,…
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The Great Serpent Mound
In a previous post, we discussed the Mississippians and their mound city at Cahokia (http://www.historynaked.com/the-mississippians/) Another similar system of mounds were made in Ohio, although much earlier than the Cahokia mounds. The Great Serpent Mound is found in Adams County, Ohio near the town of Peeples. Millions of years ago, a large meteor crashed into the area creating a five mile wide crater and surrounding plateau. The mound was built on this plateau in the shape of a large snake with a curled tail. It is the largest serpent effigy in the world, measuring approximately 1,300 feet in length and one to three feet high. The head is oriented to…
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New Grange
Built as a part of a complex of monuments along the River Boyne in Ireland, New Grange is a passage tomb dating from circa 3200 BCE. Along with Knowth and Dowth, these are called Brú na Bóinne. New Grange is the largest of as many as 35 so called passage tombs in the region. Passage tombs have, as the name suggests, a long passage leading to a chamber where the remains of the dead are placed. These remains were usually cremated. The passage and the chamber were then covered over by a large mound of stones and earth. New Grange is a large kidney shaped mound, which covers over an…
