Welcome!
.In my haste to finish the Ireland uploads, I forgot one of the most important of all the megaliths - Aill na Mireann, also know as the Catstone - the central stone of Ireland, at which the borders of the four viz. five ancient Irish Kingdoms all met. Since West Meath represents Cassiopeia, which has five major stars (four on some
stones), perhaps each of these represented a Kingdom.
To our file folder on
Ancient IrelandI have uploaded
aillnamireann.tif
ailnamireann.gif
County West Meath Aill na Mireann Catstone Central Stone Ireland
Cassiopeia Cepheus MAIN (side) VIEW
mireann.tif
mireann.gif
County West Meath Aill na Mireann Catstone Central Stone Ireland
Front View
catstone.tif
catstone.gif
County West Meath Aill na Mireann Catstone Central Stone Ireland
Back View
I managed to get three different angles of the stone in online photographs which was important to cover the constellations and counties.
The Catstone is quite gigantic - about 15 feet high AND wide and you should really look at the online photographs which I cite in my drawings of this stone.
This WAS the original Central stone of Ireland in ancient days, nothwithstanding the fame of the later Knowth and Newgrange. Sadly, the stone is almost unknown and seldom visited.
In terms of linguistic etymologies, Aill na Mireann means "stone of the division" in Gaelic and since Latvian MERIEN means "measure" we can presume Gaelic MIREANN and MERIEN are pretty close to the same origin since old Irish NU-MIR meant "number" and Latvian NUO-MER means "to measure out", i.e. "count" the length of something, which
gave rise to our modern word NUMBER, in German NUMMER. Latvian viz. proto-Indo-Europaen MER- and NUO-MER "measure" is the root.
The same root is found in Ancient Pharaonic Egyptian MERKHET "plumb line" used for astronomy and geodetics and I urge you all to look at
http://www.scivis.com/AC/inst/plumb.htmlto understand how it was used. MERKET in Latvian means to "aim (by measure)", i.e. a perfect description for the Pharaonic Merkhet.
UPDATE, October 18, 2002Anne Beideler, a LexiLine member, comments:
">Andis, I am relatively new to this list, and I have been fascinated with
>your recent postings. I wonder if you have time to fill me in on the
>big picture? What do these obvious similarites between Latvian and
>Gaelic languages mean in terms of the people? I would love some more
>background.
>Anne
Here is my answer:
Dear Anne and LexiLiners,
Your question on background is worth a thousand Ph.D doctorates. For now, I can only give you leads, which you will have to take from there.
If you go to MacBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic
Language at
http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/and plug in Lithuanian or Lettic (Latvians in German are Letts, hence the historical term Lettic) as the "substring" to be searched, you will find many listed correspondences - and I can assure you, there are many, many more, some of which I have found in MacBain and which are not listed, e.g. Gaelic sgaiteach "chip cutting of wood", where no Baltic comparable is listed but where the word Latvian skaida, plural skaidas has the same meaning in Latvian as in Gaelic sgaiteach.
Where and when was there an ancient connection between Gaelic and Baltic?
It must be very, very old.
If you go to my website
http://www.dainas.com/you will find there two links to articles by Raisa Denisova
(see
http://vip.latnet.lv/hss/denisova.htm)
and Ilze Loze
(see
http://vip.latnet.lv/hss/loze.htm)
about the Mesolithic period which will give you a VERY ancient background of some of the settlement patterns in ancient Europe. I also cite there to
a book by Paul Dunbavin on the origin of the Picts, who he traces to the Baltic.
For a nice discussion of the origin of the Celts, which points in the direction of Central Europe, see
http://www.accesscom.com/~wangbick/origins.html where it is written, inter alia, that
"
Two new groups of people emerge in Central Europe during the late Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, one certainly immigrant. Each group may be distinguished archaeologically by characteristic artifacts found in their respective burial sites. One was a Bell Beaker or drinking vessel. We now refer to this group as the Beaker folk. There is still some doubt as to the origins of the Beaker folk, some say Iberia, and some say Central Europe itself. Never-the-less it is believed that they emerge as an independent cultural group around 3000 B.C.E.
The second group is characterized by a perforated battle-axe of stone. Similarly, we now refer to this group as the Battle-Axe folk. Evidence points towards origins in the steppe-lands of southern Russia, between the Caucasus and the Carpathian mountains. The Battle-Axe folk may be attributed with the initial spread of the Indo-European group of languages. (see diagram) The Indo-European group of languages encompasses most of those current in present-day
Europe. In Central Europe the Beaker folk and Battle-Axe folk fused to become one European people. Shortly thereafter began the Bronze Age in Europe. It is unclear whether the arrival of the two groups influenced the arrival of the Bronze Age or not. Many think that contact with the Mediterranean and beyond may have influenced this."
Linguistically, according to the diagram referred to in the above citation, it means that some language group we today call Indo-European ultimately divided into Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Slavonic, Italic, Illyrian, Armenian, Hellenic (Greek), Anatolian (Hittite), Tocharian and Indo-Iranian branches.
Presumably, these various language groups also represent various migrated populations or tribes, all having a common origin. I presume that this common origin is the reason for the similarity in vocabulary of such distant groups as the Gaelics and the Baltics.
Moreover, we can presume at the time of this migration, that they all had similar belief systems - which, of course, changed with time to suit their locality - and we can also presume, as the megaliths show us, that at the time of these migrations, the earth was actually surveyed and land alloted to the various groups.
I personally think that the tale of the "Ten Lost tribes of Israel" refers to the ten tribes of Europe, the other two tribes being Judah (not Judea!) and Israel. In modern times we all speak about Israel and have forgotten Judah (in my opinion, Giza and the Nile Delta), which in ancient days, was more important (see
http://www.Lexiline.com under the searchword "Judah").
The Indo-European linguistic groups of Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Slavonic, Italic, Illyrian, Armenian, Hellenic (Greek), Anatolian (Hittite), Tocharian and Indo-Iranian add up to eleven, but I think the Tocharians are a subset of one of the other groups. So those may be your 10 lost tribes.
At some pages of Case Western Reserve University, you will find Charles Squire's
The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland which also provides information especially relevant to our megalithic studies and my allegation that Merlin is much, much older than the mainstreamers currently guess....
http://www.cwru.edu/edocs/7/494.pdf - title page
http://www.cwru.edu/edocs/7/495.pdf (chapter I) and
http://www.cwru.edu/edocs/7/496.pdf (chapter V)
http://www.cwru.edu/edocs/7/497.pdf (chronology)
and you will find more of the following material, e.g.
C H A P T E R V : THE MYTHICAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN
"WHEN Britain first, at Heaven's command, arose from out the azure main," her name was Clas
Myrddin, that is, the Place, or Enclosure, of Merlin. In later days, she became known as "the Honey Isle of Beli," and it was not until safely occupied by mankind that she took her present designation, from Prydain, son of Aedd the Great, who first established settled government.
All this is told us by a Welsh Triad, and it is from such fragmentary sources that we glean
the mythical history of our island. With these relics we must make what we can ; for the work has not been done for us in the way that it was done by the mediaeval monkish annalists for Ireland. We find our data scattered through old bardic poems and romances, and in pseudo-hagiologies and hardly less apocryphal histories. Yet, without perhaps using more freedom
with our materials than an early writer would have done, we can piece them together, and find in them roughly the same story as that of Ireland-the subjugation of the land by friendly
gods for the subsequent use of men.
...
[Note: Beli and the many place names Bally- in my opinion equal the Pole of
Heaven, and the ancient worshipeers of "Baal" - Andis]
Beli seems to have been sometimes associated in Welsh legend with the sea, which was called the "drink of Beli," and its waves "Beli's cattle." ..."
And in my own library, I have the book "
Myths and Legends of the British Isles" by Richard Barber, Boydell Press, ISBN 0 85115 748 3, which has chapters such as "The Origins of the Scottish Nation" and "The Book of the Taking of Ireland" and "The Descent of the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Woden" which should be read for background.
Anne, there is a lot to be done. Maybe you will be one of the future researchers to do it."
UPDATE October 19, 2002 from Girts Zadins"Andis, I just read you reply to Anne. Brilliant. If I had the time, I would do the research, as I have often wondered if the Celts and Balts ever met, traded, fought, or inter mixed in ancient times.Thanks for the read and the links. Keep the information coming, Thanks, Girts"
