4um: Coffin with scenes from Homer's epics found

Title: Coffin with scenes from Homer's epics found
Source: MSNBC
URL Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11928232/
Published: Mar 20, 2006
Author: AP
Post Date: 2006-03-20 23:14:35 by Zipporah
Keywords: Homers, Coffin, scenes
Views: 65
Comments: 13

People work in the ancient tomb in Kouklia village near the coastal town of Paphos, Cyprus, where the white-stone sarcophagus was found. Coffin with scenes from Homer's epics found
2,500-year-old sarcophagus unearthed in Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus - A 2,500-year-old stone coffin with well-preserved color illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday. "It is a very important find," said Pavlos Flourentzos, director of the island's antiquities department. "The style of the decoration is unique, not so much from an artistic point of view, but for the subject and the colors used." Only two other similar sarcophagi have ever been discovered in Cyprus before. One is housed in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the other in the British Museum in London, but their color decoration is more faded, Flourentzos said. The limestone sarcophagus was accidentally found by construction workers last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos area. The tomb, which probably belonged to an ancient warrior, had been looted during antiquity. Flourentzos said the coffin — painted in red, black and blue on a white background — dated to 500 B.C., when Greek cultural influence was gaining a firm hold on the eastern Mediterranean island. Pottery discovered in the tomb is expected to provide a precise date. "The style is very simple, it has little to do with later Classical prototypes and rules," Flourentzos said. Experts believe the ornate decoration features the hero Ulysses in scenes from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey — both hugely popular throughout the Greek world. In one large painting, Ulysses and his comrades escape from the blind Cyclops Polyphemos' cave, hidden under a flock of sheep. One of the illustrations on the coffin shows two warriors on a chariot.

One of the illustrations on the coffin shows two warriors on a chariot.

Another depicts a battle between Greeks and Trojans from the Iliad. "Ulysses — known for his archery skills — is taking on a whole army emerging from the gates of Troy on horseback and in chariots," Flourentzos said. Archeologists think the scenes hint at the status of the coffin's occupant. "Why else take these two pieces from Homer and why deal with Ulysses? Maybe this represents the dead person's character — who possibly was a warrior," Flourentzos said. Other drawings depict a figure carrying a seriously injured or dead man and a lion fighting a wild boar under a tree. These are not believed to be linked with Homer's poems. Reflecting a long oral tradition loosely based on historic events, Homer's epics were probably composed around 800 B.C. and written down in the 6th century B.C. The tomb was found in an area containing several ancient cemeteries which belonged to the nearby town of Palaepaphos, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) inland from modern Paphos. First settled around 2800 B.C., Palaepaphos was the site of a temple of Aphrodite — the ancient goddess of beauty who, according to mythology, was born in the sea off Paphos. The temple was one of the ancient world's most famous cult places and remained in use until early Christian times, in the 4th century.

Link doesn't work, Z. Great article though. Can you imagine and wonder what else is out there waiting to be discovered?! If only the cash spent on war was spent on discovering our past. Grrr!

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this. It sounds like Tribe of Dan to me. I was doing a search, and pulled up something I have in the back of one of my Bibles. Problem is, I have not been able to find the Bible for quite some time. I have seen where you have posted the meaning of the word "AlQueda" as being "the base". I keep remembering that the city of Dan was built upon at least a couple of time, hence the word "Tel", itself being built on the city of Laish, which means "Lions", after the barbarians of the tribe of Dan slaughtered the people and burned the city. [Judges 17-18]. The Bible entry said it was now known as Tel Al Qadi [or El Kadi; I don't remember how it was spelled]., "the hill of the judge". I was thrilled to find the following entry, because I think "the base" could refer to the old ["the base"] city of Dan. They like to hide true meanings in full view. I have read that the nwo wants to rule from Jerusalem. I have also read that they have the city of Babylon in mind, and also the city of Dan.

Dan was the northernmost point of the Israelite settlement where one of the twelve tribes chose its domicile. A familiar expression was: “From Dan even to Beer-Sheba.” 9

Students of biblical geography have agreed to place Dan in the Arab village of el-Kadi, on the upper flow of the Jordan, which is there but a rivulet. In recent years very insignificant ancient ruins have been found on this place.10 This is in accord with what the biblical archaeologists expect, for they think the temple of Dan to have been a very modest structure of which, most probably, hardly any ruins would have remained.

The biblical Dan is placed on the upper flow of the Jordan because of a passage in Josephus Flavius. In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus says that Dan was on “a spot not far from Mount Libanus and the sources of the lesser Jordan”.11 Commentators of Josephus deduced that by the “lesser Jordan” the upper flow of the Jordan, above the Lake of Huleh, or above the Lake of Tiberias, is meant; however, this interpretation is not supported by the words “not far from Mount Libanus” since, from the surroundings of el-Kadi and the sources of the Jordan, the snow-capped Hermon or Anti-Lebanon can be seen in the distance, but not Lebanon, far behind the Anti-Lebanon.

After having chosen the source of the Jordan as the area where to look for Dan, this ancient city was located at el-Kadi for the following reason: the name Dan is built of the Hebrew root that signifies “to counsel” or “to judge”. El- Kadi means in Arabic “the judge”. [Note: "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Dan". See Under the Law [Noahide Law] at http://watch.pair.com ] There was no other reason, beside this philological equation of Hebrew and Arabic terms, to locate the site of the ancient temple city in the small village of el- Kadi, since—until quite recently—no ruins, large or small, were found on the site.

[What did God say: All the hidden things of darkness will be revealed. See Seasons of the Moon - Tribe of Dan at http://ohr.org ].

The aforementioned reference in Josephus makes one wonder whether by “the lesser Jordan” the river Litani was meant. This river begins in the valley between Mount Lebanon and Mount Anti-Lebanon, flows to the south in the same rift in which farther to the south the Jordan flows, and towards the source of that river, but changes its course and flows then westwards and empties itself into the Mediterranean. Its source being near Mount Lebanon, it appears that the Litani was meant by “the lesser Jordan”.

However, Josephus, who wrote in the first century of the Christian era, was not necessarily well-informed concerning the location of Dan - the temple city of the Northern Kingdom - a state whose history ended with the capture of Samaria by Sargon II in -722.12

Therefore, it is only proper to go back to the Scriptures in trying to locate Dan....."

THE TEMPLE AT DAN...[great read about the cult of Dan and the places of false worship they built. they were great artificers. see Exodus 31 and 35. provides insight to your article]

Trojans, Greeks, Romans, horses, chariots, red and white....it all fits. Homer called the Greeks DANITES. They are all related. I am going to post this next article in its entirety, because it is sometimes difficult to locate:

Your Inheritance Sacred Truth Ministries 258 pages This is a well researched and fully documented book that deals with the ancient history and origins of the Nordic peoples and the relation of this history to Bible history . . . and the relevance of all of this to modern and current history. This book includes pictures of the coat of arms of all European Nations and their relevance to Israel is explained. It contains pictures of the symbols that are declared in Scripture to be symbols of God's true Israel people . . . all to be found in the Coat of Arms of the European and European-descended people. These symbols are by no means new; many of these symbols were in use in the 1200's and earlier by the ancient Germanic people, the Scythians, and their ancestors the Israelites. Books have been written on this under-reported historical and Biblical view for the past 200 years, but this is not just another re-hash of the "same old story". History, amazing, yet faintly reported archaeological discoveries, philology, philosophy, theology, anthropology & civilization and more, are all deftly woven into this fully-documented, scholarly, yet fascinating and easy-to-read book that can completely change your thinking in every area of your life. An idea of the many references to scholarly works throughout the book is this sample from E. P. Ingersol's Lost Israel found, In The Anglo-Saxon Race(1886) in which he states: From historic evidences that have come to light recently, it seems that Dan [one of the 12 Tribes of Israel] had been long familiar with the then Western World; that he had been accustomed to the performance of voyages with the Phoenicians all over the Mediterranean Sea, and beyond outside the Straits of Hercules; and that alone, unaccompanied by any of his neighbors, he had sailed to Egypt and thence into Greece, taking with him a colony of his own people; and that these Danai are said to have been among the first settlers of Greece. It is further stated that Dan was engaged in the sacking of Troy; that afterwards he conquered Macedonia, and that Alexander [the Great] seems to have descended from this very tribe of Israel. It is further stated that Dan settled, after the sacking of Troy, in that very region, where he built twelve cities. (p.14) Also dealing with Dan was Colonel J. C. Gawler in his scholarly work, Dan: The Pioneer of Israel. In it, Colonel Gawler quotes Latham from Ethnology of Europe: I think that the eponymus of the Argive Danai [a region of ancient Greece] was no other than that of the Israelite tribe of Dan, only we are so used to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the Israelites, that we treat them as if they were adscripti gleboe [bound to the land], and ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world. The sea ports between Tyre and Ascalon, or Dan, Ephraim, and Ashur, must have followed the history of sea ports in general, and not have stood on the coast for nothing. What a light would be thrown on the name of Peloponnesus and the history of the Pelopid family, if a bona fide nation of Pelopes, with unequivocal affinities and contemporay annals, had existed on the coast of Asia! Who would have hesitated to connect the two? Yet with the Danai and the tribe of Dan this is the case, and no one connects them! (p. 11,12) This is quite a statement! And the writer believes the only explanation would seem to be either intense ignorance or, dare one think it, a conspiracy to hide the truth. He makes no effort to hide his disgust for, and suspicions of, the establishment historians and professional clergy. He has this to say about it: Is it not rather odd that the huge mass of Israel people (about 13 million people) disappeared from history around the same time another huge body of people appeared ( in roughly the exact same place) and secular minds say they have no clue as to the destiny of the one or the origins of the other--even when the very natures and cultures of these peoples are identical; even when historical records prove they are the self-same people? Can it be they are just plain ignorant, or are they actually hiding something? . . . There exists specific proof written and recorded as early as the 1300's A.D., and all the way to the present date, as well as astounding evidence dating back to even the 600's B.C. which can be pieced together by a child. This is a significant piece of the puzzle that has been kept well hidden from most everyone. This is part of the conspiracy to keep your heritage and inheritance - your very identity - well hidden from you. To introduce the reader to the important purpose behind the writing of this book the author begins the book with the following quotes: "Everyone has struggled with the question, Who am I? It has been said that, if we could come up with the answer, 'everything else would fall into place.' " (Why Civilizations Self- Destruct (1977), Dr. Elmer Pendell (Cornell University); p. 1) "To Destroy a people, you must first sever their roots." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn This is a most fascinating book...a wonderful reference tool. Over 200 pictures and over 500 footnotes. Also contains an unprecedented list of more than 150 prominent individuals who knew/know the true identity of Israel.

I also ran across this, which goes into more detail about the Danite role in the building of Solomon's temple, and the false wisdom of the Greeks [Danites]. Another enlightening article. http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF- 02/anf02-57.htm

["Jewish" GW Bush replaced what is possibly Christ's true birthday - September 11, 3 BC - with "Patriot's Day". December 25, 2001 was Tevet 10 5761. See Cosmic Christmas http://watch.pair.com]

If you read Thirteenth Tribe by Arthur Koestler, you will see that the Khazars [who sound like Danites to me] were cozy with the Muslims when it suited them, going to battle with them, etc. When the Khazars fought against the Muslims, the Muslims in their army did not have to bear arms against their brethren.

Psa 68:16 Why leap ye, ye high hills? [this is] the hill [which] God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell [in it] for ever.

There is a lot more I could say about this one, but this is probably more than you want to know. Let me just say "leap" means "envy", and this is, IMO, a better translation:

A couple of further meanings given at http://blueletterbible.org of Bashan are "Mount Hermon" and "sandy soil". [as in, the man who does not build his house on the Rock, builds it on sand.]

Bashan was also celebrated for its OAKS, which is also indicative of cult worship. God condemned the Israleites for "worshipping in groves", and the oak, Bohemian Grove, owl, etc. are very big among the nwo today.

Everything I see here, tells me they should look to connect this discovery with the Danites.

Sorry for the contorted article. You probably can't make heads or tails out of it. I wouldn't if I didn't know what I was talking about! I hope some Biblical scholars will find some meaning in it, though, and run with it. Hopefully, it will also help some archaelogists.

The WTC couldn't have come down without a conspiracy. The perps weren't exactly working independent of each other.~Arete

Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ~Barbara Bush on ABC's "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.

And speaking of what we've spend and DONE in THIS war.. think about what has been destroyed.. Iraq the land of Ur..hanging Gardens of Babylon.. all the antiquities lost..destroyed..!

Interesting stuff..excellent compilation..I'll go back and reread this to sort it out in my mind...

I read something interesting re the Kurds sometime ago.. that they were closedly genetically linked to the jewish people..

In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people -- more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested. The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6 populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations (including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese, Spaniards, Arabs, Armenians, and Anatolian Turks). Most of the 95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq. Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other. Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their diaspora. The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7 percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes -- which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern European Christians -- descend paternally from eastern Europeans (such as Slavs) or Khazars. But the majority of Ashkenazic Jews, who possess Eu 9 and other chromosomes, descend paternally from Judeans who lived in Israel two thousand years ago. In the article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins).

A previous study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues, published in Human Genetics in December 2000, showed that about 70 percent of Jewish paternal ancestries and about 82 percent of Palestinian Arabs share the same chromosomal pool. The geneticists asserted that this might support the claim that Palestinian Arabs descend in part from Judeans who converted to Islam. With their closer relationship to Jews, the Palestinian Arabs are distinctive from other Arab groups, such as Syrians, Lebanese, Saudis, and Iraqis, who have less of a connection to Jews.

A study by Michael Hammer et al., published in PNAS in June 2000, had identified a genetic connection between Arabs (especially Syrians and Palestinians) and Jews, but had not tested Kurds, so it was less complete.

In the 1990s, a team of scientists (including the geneticist Michael Hammer, the nephrologist Karl Skorecki, and their colleagues in England) discovered the existence of a haplotype which they termed the "Cohen modal haplotype" (abbreviated as CMH). Cohen is the Hebrew word for "priest", and designates descendants of Judean priests from two thousand years ago. Initial research indicated that while only about 3 percent of general Jews have this haplotype, 45 percent of Ashkenazic Cohens have it, while 56 percent of Sephardic Cohens have it. David Goldstein, an evolutionary geneticist at Oxford University, said: "It looks like this chromosomal type was a constituent of the ancestral Hebrew population." Some Jewish rabbis used the Cohen study to argue that all Cohens with the CMH had descended from Aaron, a High Priest who lived about 3500 years ago, as the Torah claimed. Shortly after, it was determined that 53 percent of the Buba clan of the Lemba people of southern Africa have the CMH, compared to 9 percent of non-Buba Lembas. The Lembas claim descent from ancient Israelites, and they follow certain Jewish practices such as circumcision and refraining from eating pork, and for many geneticists and historians the genetic evidence seemed to verify their claim.

However, it soon became apparent that the CMH is not specific to Jews or descendants of Jews. In a 1998 article in Science News, Dr. Skorecki indicated (in an interview) that some non-Jews also possess the Cohen markers, and that the markers are therefore not "unique or special". The CMH is very common among Iraqi Kurds, according to a 1999 study by C. Brinkmann et al. And in her 2001 article, Oppenheim wrote: "The dominant haplotype of the Muslim Kurds (haplotype 114) was only one microsatellite-mutation step apart from the CMH..." (Oppenheim 2001, page 1100). Furthermore, the CMH is also found among some Armenians, according to Dr. Levon Yepiskoposyan (Head of the Institute of Man in Yerevan, Armenia), who has studied genetics for many years. Dr. Avshalom Zoossmann-Diskin wrote: "The suggestion that the 'Cohen modal haplotype' is a signature haplotype for the ancient Hebrew population is also not supported by data from other populations." (Zoossmann-Diskin 2000, page 156).

In short, the CMH is a genetic marker from the northern Middle East which is not unique to Jews. However, its existence among many Kurds and Armenians, as well as some Italians and Hungarians, would seem to support the overall contention that Kurds and Armenians are the close relatives of modern Jews and that the majority of today's Jews have paternal ancestry from the northeastern Mediterranean region.

In ancient times, the royal house of Adiabene and some of the common people of Adiabene converted to Judaism. The capital city of Adiabene was Arbela (known today by Arabs as Irbil and by Kurds as Hawler). King Izates became closely attached to his new faith, and sent his sons to study Hebrew and Jewish customs in Jerusalem. His successor to the throne was his brother Monobazos II, who also adopted Judaism. In her 2001 study, Oppenheim references the kingdom of Adiabene, but suggests that while Adiabene's conversion to Judaism "resulted in the assimilation of non-Jews into the community... This recorded conversion does not appear to have had a considerable effect on the Y chromosome pool of the Kurdish Jews." (Oppenheim 2001, page 1103). Some of the Jewish Adiabenians may have eventually converted to Christianity.

Research has just begun into the ancient ties between Kurds and Jews. It would be interesting to see if the various Jewish groups have as strong a family tie to Kurds in the maternal lineages as they do in the paternal lineages. Preliminary studies indicate that Jewish populations in eastern Europe and Yemen have maternal origins that contain much more non-Israelite ancestry than their paternal origins. Despite this admixture with other groups, the Jewish Judean people ultimately began their existence in an area within or nearby Kurdistan, prior to migrating southwest to Israel. This exciting research showing that Kurds and Jews may have shared common fathers several millennia ago should, hopefully, encourage both Kurds and Jews to explore each others' cultures and to maintain the friendship that Kurds and Jews enjoyed in northern Iraq in recent times (as chronicled in Michael Rubin's recent article "The Other Iraq"). As Rubin indicates, the Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani once visited Israel and met with Israeli government officials. Rubin refers to the Iraqi Kurds' "special affinity for Israel" and writes that "In the safe haven of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Jews and Israel are remembered fondly, if increasingly vaguely." Let us hope that this relationship can be renewed and strengthened.

Brinkmann, C., et al. "Human Y-chromosomal STR haplotypes in a Kurdish population sample." International Journal of Legal Medicine 112 (1999): 181-183.

Hammer, Michael F., et al. "Y Chromosomes of Jewish Priests." Nature 385 (January 2, 1997): 32.

Hammer, Michael F., et al. "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish Populations Share a Common Pool of Y-chromosome Biallelic Haplotypes." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) 97:12 (June 6, 2000): 6769-6774.

Oppenheim, Ariella, et al. "High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews." Human Genetics 107(6) (December 2000): 630-641.

Oppenheim, Ariella, et al. "The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East." The American Journal of Human Genetics 69:5 (November 2001): 1095-1112.

Siegel, Judy. "Genetic evidence links Jews to their ancient tribe." Jerusalem Post (November 20, 2001).

Thomas, Mark G., et al. "Y Chromosomes Traveling South: the Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba -- the 'Black Jews of Southern Africa'." American Journal of Human Genetics 66:2 (February 2000): 674-686.

Traubman, Tamara. "Study finds close genetic connection between Jews, Kurds." Ha'aretz (November 21, 2001).

Travis, J. "The Priests' Chromosome? DNA analysis supports the biblical story of the Jewish priesthood." Science News 154:14 (October 3, 1998): 218.

Zoossmann-Diskin, Avshalom. "Are today's Jewish priests descended from the old ones?" HOMO: Journal of Comparative Human Biology 51:2-3 (2000): 156-162.

One slight correction. Tevet 10 was not Jewish year 5791, but 5792. September 11, 2001 was Elul 5791. see also Feast of Tevet 10 http://philologos .org/bpr/files/Jewish_Feasts/js005.htm [i am typing this...hope it is correct.]

One other thing. I remember doing a search on "Kadi" a few years ago, and came up with an Arabic site on Sharia!

LOL! The first thing I thought when I saw this was someone really loved the Simpsons! :) Then I realized they were talking about a fictional book written over a thousand years ago. I guess some people really bought that crap back then, too bad some still do today.

God is always good!
"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02]