Why Are We Celebrating New Year Now? - LexiLine Journal 472

The Happy New Year 2008 is not far away, but why do we celebrate the New Year now and not at some other time?

N.S. Gill at about.com has a nice posting about the Julian Calendar and the Julius Caesar (?) Calendar Reform at
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/holidaysfestivals/f/CaesarCalendar.htm?nl=1

Prior to that calendar reform,
whenever it actually happened (see below),
ancient chronology is a mess,
and one of the things that we are trying to do at LexiLine
is to draw attention to obvious errors that have been made
in formulating the timeline of man's ancient history
and to suggest some obvious corrections.

See e.g. a new source out of Egypt
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/1201
for evidence that the calendar reform ascribed to Caesar occurred even earlier

and then look at more evidence concerning the errors committed by mainstream academia in assigning a chronology to Moses, etc. and the consequences of those errors
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi000.htm
that previous link being the long version with King Tut (Tutankhamon) - with the short version here at Moses and Exodus
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi300.htm

and then view my Absolute Chronology of the World by Astronomy at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi760.htm

and see in that regard the ancient Egyptian chronology of Manetho at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi20.htm

and see also my comments on the erroneous Maya chronology of mainstream Maya scholars at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/1457
and
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/956
and
as related to the Pharaonic calendric count at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/1370

That is enough material to suggest some of the major problems (and possible solutions) that exist in chronology.

There is definitely still a lot of "calendric work" to be done before we have man's history and calendration right.

Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey, India, Mayans & the Stars : Origin of the Name of the Bird We Call the Turkey - LexiLine Journal 471

Happy Thanksgiving!

You might think that the name of the American Turkey bird comes from Turkey, but you would be wrong.

Nevertheless, believe it or not, there is no accepted etymology for the origin of the word for the bird we call the "Turkey", a word which has been analyzed lexically at great depth by Alain Theriault in his 1996 posting at the Linguist List.

There is also a comprehensive lexical list at the Wiktionary.

The closest words to English "turkey" are German Trut-hahn, Latvian ti-tars, Hebrew tar-negol hodu "Indian rooster", Igbo (southern Nigera) toro toro, Irish turcai, Italian tacchino, Ladin (Switzerland) tachin, Lower Sorbian turk, Sorbian truta, Romanian curca, Telugu (Dravidian language of India) Tarkee Kodi (compare those two words with the Hebrew). Many other languages of the world have a word for the bird turkey starting with a word like hind- or ind- or something similar to it meaning "bird of India".

If the Turkey originated in Europe, the Latvian terms tark-šķēt or tark-šķis might give the essential clue since these words mean to "chatter, clapper, patter, rattle", i.e. "to gobble".

But as explained by Michael Qunion at World Wide Words, the turkey originally came from Mexico of the New World and was brought to the Old World by the Spaniards, in part via India and the East Indies, which is how the bird got called the "Indian" bird.

The Maya term for the turkey cock (the male) was ah tzo based on current evidence so that an original *tzor- form is not inconceivable. Since Tzorkin viz. Tzolkin means "cosmic matrix" (whence calendar) and Chorti, the name of the Maya people, means "river of stars", the name of the Turkey bird may have come originally from the contact of the first European explorers with the tribal populations of Mexico prior to the colonial era, i.e. rather than "bird of India", which the explorers thought they had discovered, it was actually a "bird of the Maya", whence also names of the Turkey that reference Peru.

Megaliths of Jharkhand India - LexiLine Journal 470

Subhashis Das of Hazaribagh, India, has been working for years to make the little-known megaliths of Jharkhand, India better known and to keep them from being destroyed and vandalized. Telegraph India has an account of his pioneer activities to save the megaliths of Jharkhand and to research their ancient significance. See in this regard also Sacred Sites International .

Subhashis Das points out that megaliths often have astronomical significance and were in ancient days sometimes also used as border stones. He suggests other uses as well.

He has sent me the following link to his website pages - which are well worth reading:

Megaliths of Jharkhand
http://megalithsofjharkhand.tripod.com/index.html

A better-known site in Jharkand for example is Punkree Burwadih, which Subhshis Das has discovered to be a prehistoric observtory.

The 66 Science Blogs at Seed Media - LexiLine Journal 469

What is academic archaeology REALLY like? Read for example:

• Aardvarchaeology
archaeology as empty theory, rather than evidence-based, e.g. Towards a Social Theory of Sites We Haven't Found

Science Blogs is the largest online blogging community dedicated to science. It was created as an experiment in science communication by the Seed Media Group, an emerging science media and communications company, who write:

"We have selected our 60+ bloggers based on their originality, insight, talent, and dedication and how we think they would contribute to the discussion at ScienceBlogs. Our role, as we see it, is to create and continue to improve this forum for discussion, and to ensure that the rich dialogue that takes place at ScienceBlogs resonates outside the blogosphere."

One blog - The Scientifc Indian - even links to a simply fantastic Larry Lessig video presentation on user-generated content (UGC)... a confluence of science and law. Even if you read no further, make sure you see that video in entirety to fully understand modern "digital culture" and the major issues facing intellectual property law today. See also particularly the Evolution Blog about evolution and creation, and examine particularly What the Dumbledore Flap Teaches Us About the Constitution citing to Harry Potter and the Framer's Intent, a scathing demolition by Michael C. Dorf - via J.K. Rowling and fictional intent - of Constitutional originalism. Dorf writes:

"Speaking at Carnegie Hall last week, J.K. Rowling, author of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series, revealed that Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is gay. Rowling explained that she was prompted to out the fictional Dumbledore when she noticed a reference to a female romantic interest of his in a draft of the screenplay for the planned sixth Potter film. If the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince makes Dumbledore's sexual orientation explicit, then that will settle the matter, at least so far as the fictional cinematic version of Dumbledore is concerned. But given that the Potter books, now complete, make no mention of Dumbledore's sexuality, Rowling would not appear to have any authority to declare the print version of Dumbledore gay, straight or bi. Her views on such matters are naturally of interest to fans of her books, but the work must stand on its own. These principles may seem obvious enough when considering the relation of a fiction writer's intentions to her text, but they are highly contentious when it comes to legal documents. In the balance of this column, I will explain why James Madison is no more of an authority on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution, than J.K. Rowling is on Dumbledore's sexual orientation."
Read the rest here.

Below is the list of the current 66 Science Blogs together with our comments - or not - about them, and/or including a link to a sample posting we have selected.

• A Blog Around The Clock
by the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science) who is a chronobiologist (see his recent posting on the upcoming Science Blogging Conference)
• A Few Things Ill Considered
by a software developer specializing in Artificial Intelligence applications and lot of postings on climate, e.g. Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'
• Aardvarchaeology
archaeology, e.g. Towards a Social Theory of Sites We Haven't Found
• Adventures in Ethics and Science
inter aliathe ethics of science blogging
• Aetiology
... causes, origins, evolution and implications of disease ... e.g. Bad science writing of the day: your gut bacteria make you crave chocolate
• Afarensis
Anthropology, Evolution and Science - and Send Him Your Science Links for The Panda's Thumb
• Angry Toxicologist
by a scientist in the public health sector, who rages e.g. about Over the Counter Drugs Getting More Scrutiny -- Does that mean anything?
• Chaotic Utopia
posting example, Can Science Save the Planet?
• The Cheerful Oncologist
e.g. 25 Skills Every Doctor Should Possess
• Cognitive Daily
peer-reviewed developments in cognition, e.g. Trying to lose weight? Try staring at randomly changing squares or Using international adoptions to understand how kids learn language
• The Corpus Callosum
by a psychiatrist, posting example Psychotherapy Changes Brains
• The Daily Transcript
by a cell biologist, e.g. The Cell as Art
• Deep Sea News
e.g. Monster Squid Captured on Video?
• Deltoid
inter aliaGlobal Warming
• denialism blog
e.g. Obesity and Overweight - what do these new studies really mean?
• Developing Intelligence
e.g. Blogging on the Brain: 11/04
• Discovering Biology in a Digital World
e.g. Cultural confusion: white papers vs. peer review
• Dispatches from the Culture Wars e.g. CSU Civility Code on Trial
• Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge
e.g. DIY Neuro-Motor Experiments: When the Left Hand Knows What the Right is Doing
• Dynamics of Cats
e.g. Harry Potter and the Redemption of Deconstructionism
• Effect Measure
public health, e.g. Smoking in the US
• evolgen
Evolution and Genetics, e.g. Publishing Original Research on Blogs - Part 1 (thus far 6 parts to this series) - pointing to the academic world of the future
• EvolutionBlog
evolution and creation, and see especially What the Dumbledore Flap Teaches Us About the Constitution citing to Harry Potter and the Framer's Intent
• Evolving Thoughts philosophy of biology, posting example The library of the mind
• Framing Science
science, media and politics, e.g. 63% of Election Coverage Focuses on Strategy Frame
• The Frontal Cortex
e.g. on criminal profiling
• Gene Expression
e.g. Golden-haired Neandertals?
• Good Math, Bad Math
e.g. Mathematical Constructions and the Abstraction Barrier
• Greg Laden's Blog
life science, e.g. Open Access Bill in Congress
• Highly Allochthonous
geology, paleomagnetism e.g. A map of wonderful magnetic things
• Intel ISEF
• The Intersection
e.g. Storm World
• The Island of Doubt
e.g. Uncertainty is here to stay, say climatologists
• Laelaps
e.g. "Monogamy" is much more interesting than it sounds
• Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
birding, e.g. Birder's Conservation Handbook
• The Loom
e.g. Fall Foliage--The Backstory
• Mike the Mad Biologist
e.g. Chloramphenicol, Frogs...and Bacterial Endosymbionts?
• Mixing Memory
e.g. Animal Rights and Animal Research
• Molecule of the Day
e.g. Lutein (Halloween Carotene)
• Neurophilosophy
e.g. Exercising the brain
• Neurotopia (version 2.0)
e.g. Like primates? Tough. Kiss 'em goodbye.
• Omni Brain
• On being a scientist and a woman
• Page 3.14
e.g. Neurogenesis at Neuroscience 2007
• Pharyngula
e.g. Humanist or post-humanist?
• Pure Pedantry
e.g. Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research
• The Quantum Pontiff e.g. The Quantum Pontiff Has Landed
• The Questionable Authority
e.g. The Convention on Biological Diversity non-Parties
• Respectful Insolence
e.g. The 73rd Meeting of the Skeptic's Circle
• Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog
e.g. New Blog About Academic Interviews
• Science To Life
e.g. To do or not to do?-the neuroscience of decision-making
• The Scientific Activist
e.g. DonorsChoose Bloggers Challenge Update
• The Scientific Indian
e.g. a link to the superb IP video Larry Lessig at TED
• Shifting Baselines
e.g. Is There Too Much Information?
• Signout
e.g. Science Creative Quarterly
• Speaking Science 2.0
e.g. Why Definitions of Science Literacy Matter
• Stoat
• Stranger Fruit
e.g. Today in Science (1111)
• Terra Sigillata
e.g. New pharmacy student blog: introducing Secundum Artem
• Tetrapod Zoology dinosaurs, e.g. A most atypical stegosaur
• Thoughts from Kansas
e.g. The Panglossian Paradigm, or as science moves forward, creationists move back
• Thus Spake Zuska
e.g. "It's Not A Kitchen Gadget, It's A Tool!"
• Uncertain Principles
e.g. Who Are You People?
• The Voltage Gate
e.g. Science Art Tuesday: Triune Is Coming
• The World's Fair
e.g. Technology and Orgasm on Film
• Zooillogix

Indus Valley Script as Astronomy and Compared to Easter Island Script - LexiLine Journal 468

Daniel Salas has alerted me to his website and his interpretation of "Indo-European Sanskrit decipherment of the Indus Valley script " as astronomy. He writes there:

"I found that the Indus Valley script signs matched the star constellations along the ecliptic. "

I am very sympathetic to his approach since it mirrors some of my own views about the common astronomical origin of many symbols in disparate cultures. I do not however agree with many of his individual interpretations, but I think he is definitely on the right track in seeing symbols of the Indus Valley script to be astronomical signs for the Nakshatras (ancient Vedic Sanskrit moon stations of the sky). In other words, he is very right in seeing the astronomical connection. I then saw it is my responsibility, based on my experience with ancient astronomical scripts, to identify those symbols that I can.

Below, I compare one of the seals that Daniel Salas shows on his website with my decipherment 26 years ago of a wooden tablet from Easter Island known as "Honolulu Tablet No. B. 3622 which I showed to be an ancient zodiac, as published in the year 1981 in An Astrological Zodiac in the Script of Easter Island. That there is a clear connection between that Easter Island script and the Indus Valley seal pictured byDaniel Salas is beyond doubt, and I interpret the Indus Valley seal accordingly below.

At the bottom of the graphic right (and reproduced next to it left) is the Indus Valley seal pictured by Salas:



To our eye, the second line appears merely to be a variant writing of the same symbols.

In the middle of the page below is found the Easter Island Zodiac deciphered by me in the year 1981:


If we now directly compare the Indus Valley seal with the Easter Island tablet we get the following comparison and identification of astronomical signs:


The second row of symbols on the seal appears to be a variant form of the same group of symbols - or - perhaps this lower group of symbols applies to the southern heavens, which would support the ancient Vedic Sanskrit legends that the ancient seafarers mapped the southern heavens so as to be nearly identical to their northern counterparts. Richard Hinckley Allen in Star Names, Dover Publications, N.Y. 1997, reports of ancient legends that the southern stars were initially created by ancient seafarers to approximate the shape of Northern constellations in similar positions. Allen writes in Star Names (p. 436) as follows:

"Before the observations of the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries the singular belief prevailed that the southern heavens contained a constellation near the pole similar to our Bear or Wain; indeed it is said to have been represented on an early map or globe. Manilus wrote:

The lower Pole resemblance bears
To this Above, and shines with equal stars;
With Bears averse, round which the Draco twines;'

and Al Biruni repeated the Sanskrit legend that at one time in the history of the Creation an attempt was made by Visvamitra to form a southern heavenly home for the body of the dead king, the pious Somadatta; and this work was not abandoned till a southern pole and another Bear had been located in positions corresponding to the northern, this pole passing through the island Lunka, or Vadavamukha (Ceylon). The Anglo-Saxon Manual made distinct mention of this duplicate constellation 'which we can never see.'..."

Ancient Halloween Roots - Calendration - LexiLine Journal 467

In what has become an annual tradition, I carve our Halloween pumpkin each year in a new face and present that face to our internet readers. This year, our creation is Ms. Pumpkin, a bit of a bear or tiger or panther, as you wish, shown below in a photo taken in the darkness outside at night without flash this Halloween Eve. The differing colors result from the flickering red candle burning inside the carved pumpkin:


Halloween has become quite popular here in Germany in recent years. We had a record 17 trick-or-treaters at our house in Germany this evening.

"Trick or Treat" is called "Süsses oder Saures" (Sweet or Sour) in German, i.e. "sweets or else".

When I was in my youth in the USA, my father used to give each trick-or-treater a Hershey bar - after having each visitor show his or her tricks first, of course. We carry on this tradition here on the Moselle River by giving each trick-or-treater a large chocolate bar. Some of the visitors this evening had Halloween costumes on, quite like those worn in the USA.

The Great LexiLine Pumpkin 2007 that you see pictured above measures about a half-a-meter across and is a real giant, the largest we have ever had.

The pumpkin mass that remained after our carving served as our meal this eve. We had pumpkin soup, in which the ingredients were mashed pumpkin, cream, milk, water, vegetable broth, ginger, salt and pepper. It was delicious.

We spread the pumpkin seeds on newspaper to dry out and will plant them early next year in egg shell halves filled with earth, where the seed can germinate before it is taken outside and planted in our garden.

It is rather remarkable to read that some religious and political figures and groups oppose the fun that is Halloween, among them:

- the American religious right wing
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
- Moscow schools in Russia
- Muslims, orthodox Jews and Evangelical Christians
- Wiccan (Witch) religions

Did we hear something about birds of a feather flocking together?
You are known by the company you keep.

In fact, Halloween predates all of those religious and political groups and religions, and can be traced back to ancient practices of our forefathers:

"Halloween (Allhallows Even) was observed by some churches with religious services. However, most persons regarded it as a secular festival. In its strictly religious aspect, it is known as the vigil of Hallowmas or All Saints' Day, observed on November 1 by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

The festival of Halloween is based on a combination of the Christian commemoration of the departed faithful (All Saints' Day) with the pre-Christian Celtic feast associated with a celebration of the end of summer and the Celtic New Year. Celts who lived in what is now known as Ireland, Scotland and parts of Great Britain celebrated their new year that began November 1. Allhallows' Even was observed on the evening of October 31st. Around 800 A.D., the day became known among Christians as Allhallomas which eventually changed to All Hallow E'en, or Halloween.

Celtic peoples adopted Christianity quickly, easily, and strongly. The conversion of Celtic peoples did not, however, keep them from celebrating some of their old customs. Attempts to replace the year-end custom in the old Celtic calendar were only partially successful. Some of our Halloween traditions date back to these early times.

Summer's end and the celebration of a good harvest has always been an important event in the life of agrarian peoples. Samhain "Hallowday" or Samfuin (sam + fuin) summer's end, marked the end of the yearly cycle and was celebrated with both religious and agrarian rites. It was the period for threshing and of food preparation for the winter season. On that evening, so it was believed, present, past, and future became one. Celts gave thanks for the safe return of their cattle to winter quarters, and invoked their gods for prosperity and good crops for the coming year.

Samhain was both the "end of summer" and a commemoration of the dead. The spirits of the departed were believed to visit their kinsmen in search of warmth and good cheer as winter approached. It was a time when evil, as well as good, spirits returned to the living. Fairies were believed to migrate from one home to another, and Hallowe'en was the time when humans kidnapped by elfin folk could reclaim their lost loves or relatives.

Jack-O'-Lanterns were scooped out of turnips with skull-like faces carved into them. This may reflect the ancient custom of placing skulls around the tribal fire to keep evil demons away. "

Note well the people who are against Halloween. You will most likely see the faces of religious and political tyrants trying to impose their particular superstitions ON YOU. These are the evil demons that OUR pumpkin turns away.

Enjoy a blessed Halloween, wherever you are.

______________

Jeffrey I. Rose replied:

Many thanks for the Halloween wishes and protective pumpkin (as well as pumpkin soup recipe). I saw this article yesterday and immediately thought of you and your research:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/31/wpolynesian1.xml

Shakira Studying History of Civilization - LexiLine Journal 466

Andis Kaulins wrote:

As the first "history of civilization" newsletter and discussion list on the Internet, we are gratified to see that the pop singer Shakira from Colombia recently enrolled at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) to study the History of Western Civilization. This news was first brought to our attention by an article in the German newspaper Trierischer Volksfreund (17 September 2007) and confirmed online at eFluxMedia, Boxnet, Showbuzz, PopWatch, USAToday, MSNBC, etc.

We have not had great success via the archaeologists of this world in getting the public to pay attention to our message. Perhaps we should turn to Hollywood!?
______________

Walter Cruttenden

Author, Lost Star of Myth and Time

replied:

It is good more people are studying history - now we just need to get our history right! Maybe Shakira should come to UCSD.

Ancient cultures around the world spoke of a vast cycle of time with alternating Dark and Golden Ages - Plato called it the Great Year. While it was the dominant view of history for thousands of years it died out with the rise of the Darwinian paradigm. But what if the ancients were right - and we just haven't figured out what causes the cycle?

This will be the topic of the "Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge" (CPAK) to be held this weekend at UCSD (in Peterson Hall), Oct. 6-7.

Andis, if you get a chance please feel free to come as my guest (just you - not everyone on the board). Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John West, Robert Schoch and others will be giving presentations. I respect your intellect on these matters and would welcome the chance to talk with you about this subject in depth.

For more info www.CPAKonline.com

Cheers

Walter Cruttenden

Author, Lost Star of Myth and Time

__________

Andis Kaulins replied:

Thank you for the invitation. It would have been great to meet some of the people whose materials I am of course very familiar with. If I were not so far away (Germany), I would definitely have attended the CPAK 2007 conference this weekend. The last time I was in San Diego was as a recruit for the United States Marine Corps when I was drafted into the military out of Stanford Law School in my first law school year. At the time that it happened, I regarded it is a bit of a disaster, but later I came to appreciate it as a worthwhile and enriching experience. Without that time in San Diego, I would certainly not be as confident and battle-ready against antiquated mainstream science as I am. Most established academics simply do not appreciate how academically subservient and weak they are, especially in the fields that you and I are involved in.

EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF PIE *UPER - LexiLine Journal 465

Ishinan sent in the following contribution taken from the pages of the The Egyptian Chronicles:

Experimental Verification of PIE * uper (Best seen with JEPGs by clicking on the URL below:) http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/CULTURE/UPER.html Traditional Indo-Europeanists have concluded that PIE * uper has generated important derivatives based on the following hypothetical reconstructions: From 1) * uperi, 2) variant from or suffixed from *(s)uper, suffixed (superlative) reduced from *sup-mo and sur- (for more details see attached JPEGs). However, critics look at reconstructions like these and see serious problems. The data is open to challenge, and it's quite easy to find in this case words that are similar in sound and meaning to one another in unrelated languages. In fact, there exists among the lexicon of the Semitic languages five vocabulary items parallel to those terms dealt with above by the Indo-Europeanists. They are from the Ugaritic *(1), Hebrew/Aramaic *(2) and Classical Arabic *(3). All of them convey parallel correspondents similarly in range of sounds and meanings: These are: 1) `br: Over, passing over, through and beyond. 2) `fr : That exceeds the ordinary bounds. 3) sbr: The top, highest,chief, head of a people, supervisor & sovereign. 4) swr: The uppermost, superiority, eminence and nobility. 5) smt: Summit, zenith, azimuth, peak and/or point of culmination In the Semitic languages, each of these items is derived from an independent trilateral root. In this instance, these items are unrelated. Their roots are respectively depicted as: `br,`fr ( *Proto Semitic: `pr), sbr, and smt (see the respective JPEGs ). http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/CULTURE/UPER.html Logically, two unrelated family languages are unlikely to invent the same word independently from one another unless we are assuming the validity of the existence of a parallel universe. In this instance we are not dealing with one contradicting example to PIE * uper as evidence, but rather five from an unrelated family language. In a court of law such multiple circumstantial evidences would be enough to convict the guilty party. CONCLUSION: In view of the parallel Semitic examples offered above, theoretical reconstruction of PIE * uper is unconvincing. Ishinan

Andis Kaulins replied:

There is no question that the Indo-European alleged hypothetical root of *uber is a fabrication of deluded and misguided world linguists having little understanding of the true development of human language.

I wrote long ago that the root of the terms discussed here is seen clearly in the whole host of words in Indo-European e.g. Latvian having a PA-RA root, i.e. as written at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi53.htm :

"[They are ]derived from the combination of PA [viz. BA] with RA, with PA as a "prefix of being, or place" and RA as a root of "eye, see, sight, light, use, eye (to hand) coordination"."

Hence PĀR viz. PĀRI (both with long a) in Latvian mean "over, above, across", as derived from the primordial idea of "there - see", which of course is related to English far, i.e. "over there".

The idea of being "over" or "above" something led in time by the process of dissociation from PAR to the word VAR / VARS in Latvian meaning "to be able to do, to can do, power, might".

Combined with the S-mobile prefix as derived from the affixation of the prefix ES "the self, I" in its conversion to a directional prefix, this not only led in Latvian to words such as UZVAR(A) "victory, win" - from UZ-VARA < *ES-VARA ("I win") but also to the idea of SVAR(S) [ES-VARS] "weight" and "might" in this sense.

This resulted in words such as English SOVEREIGN which is Latvian SVĒRIEN(s) - long e - "weighing, mighty of weight" or English SUPERB which is Latvian SVARĪBA - long i - "importance (by weight), weighty".

SVARS was by the way also an important word in ancient Egypt and is the word transcribed erroneously by the Egyptologists as OSIRIS, the God of the Underworld. Of course, SVARS was actually the Egyptian concept of gravity initially, a force which the ancients saw as emanating from the bowels of the Earth (that analysis is our discovery). Later this force was personified.

Your run-of-the-mill Indo-Europeanist or Egyptologist has never seen these connections because 1) he or she does not speak Latvian [or any similarly useful language such as Lithuanian], 2) they do not consult Latvian in making their etymologies, and 3) they generally have no clue about how language was actually constructed in ancient days - as mainstream linguists mostly fail to appreciate that more complex conceptual ideas derived from simpler graspable physical concepts - for which there were originally words.

As a result, it is quite clear that BR, FR, SBR and SWR do in fact have have the same root [when applied to terms meaning over, power, etc.], whether this be Indo-European, Ugaritic, Hebrew/Aramaic or Classical Arabic.

As for the fifth term, the word summit, how the Indo-European linguists managed to attempt to merge a totally unrelated word like summit into an equally erroneous root of *uper is a case study for the cognitive psychologists who study these kinds of academic aberrations.

The Latin term for "sum" was summa viz. summus, for which the Indo-Europeanists have no clue of actual lexical origin, because they have not consulted Latvian. In Latvian the origin is clearly seen, as a saim(is) or sain(is) which is a "bundle of something", for which reason also a saime is a community of some kind, i.e. a bundle of persons, a sum of persons, and for which reason in Latvian a soma is a "bag" or "pouch" of some kind, in which one collects some number - a bundle (viz. sum) - of objects.

The origin of the English word sum, is correctly seen in the concept of "bundle".

As for astronomy, I write about the Sumerian zenith at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi179.htm

The word summit has the same origin as the word azimuth, as found in Latin semita "path" and the Arabic as-sumut or as-samt "the way, compass bearing", which may be related to Latvian atzīmetais "that marked" and "acī-metis", that marked by the eye.

The Indo-Europeanist idea that the word zenith derives Arabic samt (ar-ra's) is curious to say the least, and the Latvian ce(l)nite - long i - "that raised, that in culmination" gives us the proper ancient explanation, pointing to the root word cel- "raise".

Again, Ishinan, Latvian shows that all of these languages - Indo-European, Ugaritic, Hebrew-Aramaic and Classical Arabic - once all derived from the same source.

______________

Ishinan replied:

Andis Kaulin wrote:

"There is no question that the Indo-European alleged hypothetical root of *uber is a fabrication of deluded and misguided world linguists having little understanding of the true development of human language."

To view Andis' response in its entirety click on the URL below:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/1608

Dear Andis,

I totally agree with your assessment, as It is unscientific to cherry pick examples from a few languages and ignore all the rest. A solid and persuasive theory ought to be inclusive and allow it to be properly scrutinized in order to survive the test of time.

I also would like you to know how much I appreciate your thought on human history which I share here with the LexiLin members:

"Much of mainstream human history is based on myth, unfounded opinion and just plain hearsay. When we look at the testimony of man's history through the piercing eyes of a cross-examining lawyer, much accepted dogma needs revision." Andis Kaulins

Yours sincerely,

Ishinan
______________

Andis Kaulins replied:

I wrote previously that "The word summit has the same origin as the
word azimuth, as found in Latin semita "path" and the Arabic as-sumut
or as-samt "the way, compass bearing", which may be related to Latvian
atzimetais "that marked" and "aci-metis", that marked by the eye."

When I reconsidered the Latin semita "path" again, then it became
clear that the Latin term semita has a different origin than the word
summit and that mainstream linguists have erred in seeing the two as
connected.

The correct origin of the Latin term semita is in the Indo-European e.g. compound term samita in "Latvian" as derived from sa-mita "down-trodden", i.e. a "trodden path" formed by man or animal, which is what the most ancient "paths" were.

Summit on the other hand will either be related to eye orientation, as
I already surmised previously, or is related to the Latvian term jumt-
which means "ceiling", perhaps from an original *uz-met "upon thrown",
i.e. above one as a summit in this sense.

An Ancient Hermetic Survey of Europe and Africa - LexiLine Journal 464

The Tanum-System :
An Ancient Hermetic Survey of Europe and Africa

by Andis Kaulins (1)(2)

Paper presented at the 41st Annual Walther Machalett Conference on Prehistory and Early History, May 17, 2007, Horn/Bad Meinberg, Germany.

THE ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS SHOWN AS A MAP

FIGURE 1 : An Ancient Survey of Europe and Africa ?


________________
(1) J.D. (Doctor of Jurisprudence), Stanford University, USA; Former Lecturer, FFA, Anglo-American Law, University of Trier Law School, University of Trier.
(2) The author would like to thank Dr.jur. Gert Meier (Law, Government, History and Modern Languages, University of Göttingen; former NATO Scholar at Stanford University) for important contributions to the content of this manuscript.
______________

The online uploaded German-language files of this paper are found at:

Das Tanum System von Andis Kaulins 19 Juni 2007.doc (4 megabytes)
Das Tanum System von Andis Kaulins 19 Juni 2007.pdf (5 megabytes)

Ancient Tanum Europe Africa Survey System - LexiLine Journal 463

To our LexiLine Files at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/
at the new directory
Africa and Europe (plus Egypt)
I have uploaded my most recent German-language publication (98 pages) presented originally at the Machalett Conference in Horn/Bad Meinberg in May of this year. I have uploaded it to our files both in .pdf and .doc form (see below) and will be publishing this article to LexiLine in the course of the coming months in serial form in English.

The Title in English is: The Tanum System : An Ancient Hermetic Survey of Europe and Africa

The Title in German is: Das Tanum-System - ein alteuropisch-afrikanisches Vermessungssystem?, Referat gehalten auf der 41. Jahrestagung des Arbeitskreises Walther Machalett, 17. Mai 2007 in Horn/Bad Meinberg/Externsteine, von Andis Kaulins (Copyright © 2007 Andis Kaulins. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.)

The uploaded German-language files are:

Das Tanum System von Andis Kaulins 19 Juni 2007.doc (4 megabytes)
Das Tanum System von Andis Kaulins 19 Juni 2007.pdf (5 megabytes)

I've got some spectacular if also speculative things in there....so stay tuned....

Ancient Mariners of Cyprus : Ancient Seafaring More Far-Reaching and Much Older than Previously Thought - As Above So Below - LexiLine Journal 462

I will shortly be posting in English here on LexiLine my originally German-language presentation at the Machalett Conference in May of this year 2007 in which I presented my view of how ancient seafarers surveyed Europe and Africa in the Neolithic Era, using astronomy as their triangulation measuring stick and megalithic sites as their survey markers.

Support for my general theory is found in a just published July 19, 2007 archaeology news report.

In an article at Yahoo News titled "Ancient mariner tools found near Cyprus", George Psyllides, AP writer, reports on new archaeological finds on the island of Cyprus which suggest that ancient seafaring was more far-reaching and much older than previously thought by the mainstream community.

Psyllides quotes Colgate University's Albert J. Ammerman, the survey's director, as follows:

"These are the people who are the pioneers.... All of what we see on the land is just a tip of the iceberg of what is in the water...."

Psyllides writes further:

"The archaeologists believe that tools found at the two sites were used by seafaring foragers who frequented the island well over 10,000years ago - before the first permanent settlers arrived around 8,200 B.C.

They are thought to have sailed from present-day Syria and Turkey, at least 46 miles north and east of the island.

The dawn of seafaring in the region has been put at around 9,500B.C. from evidence found 20 years ago at Aetokremnos, on Cyprus' southern Akrotiri peninsula.

The finds indicate these early wanderers traveled more widely, and more frequently, than was previously believed, outside experts say.

"This just shows there is a lot more activity than was originally thought," said Tom Davis, an archaeologist and director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute.... "We're looking at repeated visits around the island."

"These would be people stopping deliberately, coming to the island to use resources, setting themselves with a clear understanding of the landscape," Davis said.

The finds indicate these early wanderers traveled more widely, and more frequently, than was previously believed, outside experts say."

And if that is true, then they must have had means of navigation at sea, and this could only have been navigation by the stars - with megalithic markers as terrestrial and hermetic cartographic points - as above, so below.

Rotherwas Serpent in England near the Herefordshire Beacon is Astronomy as the Hermetic Constellation Draco - LexiLine Journal 461

Via Archaeo News, the International Herald Tribune , Megalithic.co.uk and especially
the Monterey Herald and RotherwasRibbon.com (the latter two of which have pictures), we discover that archaeologists have found a ca. 65-yard (ca. 60 meter) serpentine figure on a mound near Mondiford and the juncture of the rivers Wye and Lugg in Herefordshire, England. The 3-D serpentine figure, which has subsequently been named the "Rotherwas Ribbon", a name long applied to the area in which it was found, is perhaps more accurately called by its alternative name, "The Rotherwas Serpent", being similar to the Serpent Mound in Ohio in the USA, the largest such serpent mound in North America.

There is no question in our mind that the Rotherwas Serpent is a hermetic ("as above, so below") representation on land of a stellar figure seen by the ancients in the stars of the heavens, i.e. a heavenly serpent. Indeed, the name "roth-er-was" surely involves a confusion with and mixture of Gaelic naeth(er) "serpent" and Gaelic ooir wass "subsoil", i.e. "the serpent mound".

As I have written on page 1 of my book, Stars Stones and Scholars :

"All Neolithic sites in England and Wales, as marked on the Ordnance Survey map of Ancient Britain, form a map projection of the stars of the northern and southern heavens, with the center of the system at Herefordshire Beacon near Midsummer Hill and Wynd's Point."

Since the Rotherwas Serpent is located a mere 20 miles or so away from the Herefordshire Beacon, it is likely that the Rotherwas Serpent (dated to be older than the British Camp at the Herefordshire Beacon) is an alternative, probably older mark for the center of this system at the stars of Draco, the celestial serpent.

If this were actually so, the Rotherwas Serpent would be of incalculable value for the history of Ancient Britain and for the history of astronomy.

We read now with horror that there are plans to destroy the site by building a road through it :

"The Rotherwas Ribbon,named for the area in which it was found, lies in the path of theplanned highway and will be encased in a protective structure beneath the road once it is built."

There is already a Rotherwas Ribbon Campaign website established to save the Rotherwas Serpent and we can only hope that it will successful. Please go to that website and see what you can do to help to stop this madness in the United Kingdom (and elsewhere) of the destruction of invaluable ancient megalithic archaeological sites.

Megalithic Mapping & Cognitive Psychology - LexiLine Journal 460

The blog Cognitive Daily has a June 7, 2007 posting titled Human GPS: Some of us are better equipped than others, pointing out on the basis of tests in cognitive psychology that "navigation using both external visual information and mental mapping is the standard for most people."

What the psychologists have discovered conforms to our arguments concerning the hermetic mapping system of the ancients in adapting the "mental map" of the stars above to the external visual megalithic information which they correspondingly placed below.

LARYNGEAL THEORY (Where aspirated letter haitch (heɪtʃ) = Sem - LexiLine Journal 459

Ishinan wrote:

The eighteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet called _`ayn_ belongs to a class of consonants called Voiced Pharyngeal Fricative (termed in Arabic "majhuwrah" or vocal i.e. pronounced equally with the voice, and the breath). By contrast, the corresponding sixteenth Hebrew letter `ayn ( pronounced ah-yeen) is silent.

In that respect it is said that the Hebrew `ayn sees but does not speak. The Arabic `ayn is produced by stopping the airflow in the back of the mouth combined with a pharyngeal sound. It is a little like the sound "aaah" produced by pulling the back of the tongue back into the throat a bit.

Hence, I propose that the English aspirated letter haitch (heɪtʃ), which is treated as a phantom consonant, may have stood for the Semitic letter `ayn. A simple example can be found in the case of the term `briy (initial `ayn in both Hebrew and Arabic) for Hebrew (initial heɪtʃ in English).

Another case is the Arabic _h2nd_ which has been discussed in my earlier posts. Among its' many meanings, the following for hand stands out ( see the various Arabic and English definitions below). Among Afro Asian languages, the _h2nd_ term is unique to Classical Arabic .

In the above example, a comparaison between Classical Arabic and Germanic included Old English, where the primary sense of Hand is described in both as: Side, power and possession. A perfect match with a minor difference, in that the Old English term hand is treated as a noun, while the Arabic term `nd is a verb (conjugated as `andiy, `andak, `anduh etc. , translated as: have in my hand, have in your hand, has in his hand etc.)

For those of you who might be skeptical regarding these correspondents, I offer the additional example below where the English aspirated letter haitch [heɪtʃ] stood for Arabic `ayn.

Ishinan
______________

(this posting was posted later than the previous posting, but written earlier than that)

LARYNGEAL THEORY ( the case of h2nd) - LexiLine Journal 458

Ishinan wrote:

Thank you for drawing attention to Middle Egyptian "khnt" which has two meanings: a) in front of, and b) act of rebellion (same in Arabic)

In my opinion, if we take into account your example of Middle Egyptian "khnt" and compare it to the various Indo-European terms ("in front of // Latin: ante (before) // Greek: anti (against, in front of) //Armenien: and (in front of) // Lithuanian: ant (in front of) // Hittite: hanti (infront of)"} then, one can easily see how, in this instance, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) reconstruction is on shaky ground.

In addition, the following comparison between Indo-European (Latin, Greek & Hittite) and Afro Asian languages (Middle Egyptian & Classical Arabic) which exhibits the same cognate term shows how PIE, which tends to omit non-Indo-European cognate terms, can be at best incomplete.

Ishinan

FYI : The initial guttural letter `ayn in the above Arabic term h2nd, represents the eighteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet. In Arabic, `Ayn is one of the letters termed "majhuwrah" or vocal i.e. pronounced equally with the voice, and the breath (Pharyngeal Fricative) . It is one of the hardest sound for non-Arabic westerner speakers to hear in Arabic because, though a consonant in Arabic, it sounds most like the English a. It is like the softest or medium h , only humming (vocalized). It is a little like the sound a doctor asks to hear when looking down your throat. While saying "aaah" pull the back of your tongue back into your throat a bit." By contrast the corresponding sixteenth Hebrew letter `ayn (pronounced ah-yeen) is silent. In that respect it is said that the Hebrew `Ayn, unlike the Arabic one, sees but does not speak.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andis Kaulins wrote:

Thank you for your useful and interesting postings on the topic of "the case of h2nd" = khnt.

Your presentation is clear and easy to follow.
We definitley have some points of agreement that Proto-Indo-European reconstructions often are based on shaky ground.

This all looks like a very fruitful line of inquiry which I think we should continue to follow, although I will not always agree with your conclusions, as you will see, though I have no doubt that Arabic is related to Indo-European in origin, since - from my point of view - all languages of the world are related.

I have additional observations regarding the origin of khnt:

1. The Arabic meaning of "act of rebellion" seems to me to be merely one special case of being "opposite to" or "against" something. In my opinion, it is thus a specific Arabic application of the basic term khnt which does not necessarily give us any information about word origins here.

We have similar terms in Indo-European which are surely related to the above-mentioned special application of khnt in Arabic, for example the English contra and counter, i.e. "to counter something, to being against it". In Latvian, which is much more archaic than English, we find the surely related term cīnīt- "to struggle against, to battle with". We see in this manner that the Arabic use of khnt for the concept of "rebellion" is thus not linguistically unusual from the standpoint of Indo-European language.

2. It would seem to me that to get to the actual word root in the case of h2nd we have to go back much further in time than Middle Egyptian. Rainer Hannig's Egyptian Dictionary I of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period has numerous terms on pages 954 to 962 from the Old Kingdom involving h2nd in various meanings centered around the idea of "being in front of", also in the apparently more archaic sense of "being at the head of, leading".

For that older meaning we have the comparable Baltic dzināt viz. dzīt (to drove, to drive (e.g. a herd of animals)) as a form of Latvian dzinējs "drover, driver" which we find in Lithuanian ginejas. For the Pharaonic prefixed variant m-khnt we then find the Latvian comparable mudzināt "to urge on, to spur on".

Also in in the Old Kingdom Pharaonic hieroglyphs - as in the Baltic - we then find h2nd written without the interceding letter N as kht which the Egyptologists falsely read as khnt.

The Egyptologists also falsely read e.g. khntj-sh for a similar hieroglyph without an N whose meaning is either "wood from Lebanon" or "settler", a hieroglyph which of course is correctly to be read as dzitar, i.e. cedar in the case of the wood from Lebanon and seter in the case of the settlers (as in the Norwegian seter "settlements" or Swedish seter or Latvian seta, "fence, border".) The scribes left the N out intentionally in Pharaonic.

The reason that the sound DZ- was represented in Pharaonic language by the standing vases is perhaps - and this is speculative - because in Indo-European, e.g. Latvian dzid-ris means "clear fluid" which may be what the vases homophonically represent.

The root for the Indo-European terms in form similar to the word hand is different, as in my opinion it relates to the concept of "side", in e.g. Latvian sānite viz. sāni meaning "side, for which we have the comparable German k-form in Kante "edge, side (in this sense)". The Indo-European terms of the form hand thus do not derive from h2nd word forms.

Moreover, the notion that the shift of pronunciation is from h to k to s, as I have often stated (see e.g. http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi53.htm ), is false. Rather the process is from the other direction: "S-forms in Sumerian and Akkadian predominate, so S is older than K, contrary to current "West-centered" satem - centum theory." The satem-centum shift never took place. Rather, S degraded to K and then to H. Neither Sumerian nor Latvian have a native H.

LARYNGEAL THEORY - LexiLine Journal 457

Ishinan wrote:

While writing a paper on guttural letters my research eventually touched upon the Laryngeal theory, specifically "PIE Reconstruction: *h2enti; Hittite hanti; Latin ante (before, against)". Considerable debate still surrounds the pronunciation of the laryngeals. Many believe that they represented some sort of glottal stop or pharyngeal. I am sure you are all familiar with this continuous argument.

In that respect, I discovered the following:

(Pre-Islamic) Classical Arabic has the very same term `nd (transliterated as : H2nd) spelled with a voiced pharyngeal fricative initial letter `ayn (see the attached JPEG below).

INDO -EUROPEAN ETYMOLOGY: "Ante- prefix meaning "before," from L. ante (prep. and adv.) "before, in front of, opposite" from PIE *anti "facing opposite, near, in front of, before. From L. ante "before," from PIE *anti "facing opposite, near, in front of, before" (cf. Skt. antah "end, border, boundary," Hittite hanti "opposite," Gk. anta, anten "opposite," anti "over against, opposite, before;" O.Lith. anta "on to;" Goth. anda "along;" O.E. and- "against;" Ger. ent- "along, against"). Thus PIE (traditional) *anti "in front of and facing" > Greek antأ­ "against"; Latin ante "in front of, before"; (Sanskrit أ،nti "near; in the presence of"). In Hittite there is a noun ل¸«ants "front, face", with various derivatives (ل¸«antezzi "first", and so on, pointing to a PIE root-noun *hâ‚ent- "face" (of which *hâ‚‚enti would be the locative singular)"

As you can see, the Arabic term has the range of meanings included in the Indo-European terms.

While the Arabic term is of great antiquity, it is still widely used to this day. Moreover, to my knowledge, it is unique to Arabic and not shared with its sister languages (like Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic etc.) Thinking I was dealing with typical Nostratic material, I checked "Early Reconstructions of Nostratics" by V.M. Illic Svitycs (translated by Mark Kaiser), but found that it was not included.

The question I would like to pose to Indo-Europeanists is the following:

In your opinion, If PIE *anti is shared with a non-Indo-European language, is it still eligible to be counted as PIE?

The same question, addressed to Nostratists:

Does the existence of this term in Arabic alone among A. A. languages qualify it to be counted as Nostratic?

Any thoughts?

Ishinan

Andis Kaulins wrote:

At the Ancient Egypt Weblog I provide my explanation for the Egyptian hieroglyphs for vowels as follows (http://www.lexiline.com/images/pharaonicvowels.png ):


The above graphic shows my discovery that the labeal, pharyngeal, velar and uvular sounds in Pharaonic Egyptian were represented by four separate hieroglyphs that correspond to the later matres lectiones of the Hebrew alphabet. Here we see that 'ayn was preeceded by a Pharaonic hieroglyph represented by a predatory bird, viz. ērglis in Indo-European (e.g. meaning "eagle" in Latvian) which is a word that is homophonic (same-sounding) with ieriklis or ierikle "in the throat" (in Latvian), so that 'ayn was most assuredly preceded by the eagle (vulture) hieroglyph representing the pharyngeal sound "in the throat".

A discussion concerning the current pronunciation of 'ayn is found at the Word Reference Forum.

The alleged PIE root 'hanti- viz. *anti- relates to two distinct ancient concepts,
namely "behind, back of" and "in front of, opposite of".

At the Bantu Basic Vocabulary Database
we find words comparable to Indo-European for the idea of "behind":

Bantu Bemba kùŋkì
Bantu Bukusu kóòŋgò
Bantu Koyo ŋgɔ̀ŋgɔ̀

or "back (of)"

Bantu Bukusu kóòŋgò
Bantu Kinyamwezi gɔ̀ɔ̀ŋgɔ̀
Bantu Lega gòŋgò

That corresponds to Indo-European, e.g. German gegen "against, opposite"
and English "against" from Middle English againes from ongeagn.
As the comparable Bantu terms show, this is a very old term in human language.

The question then arises whether the whole panoply of terms at the
"PIE Reconstruction: *h2enti; Hittite hanti; Latin ante (before, against)"
can be viewed to have the same word origin as ongeagn
or whether they have a different word origin.

Note here that *Hanti- is a term which in our opinion is already found as Hntj or Hntt in the Old Kingdom hieroglyphs of Pharaonic Egypt, e.g. in describing the concept of "in front of" in the names of the Nomes .

For example, the name of the nome that I decipher as
"14. Front of Cetus - Diphda, Hntj-j3btj, "front Eastern nome"
is seen to mean "in front of"
where
Hntj has also been transcribed as xntj and as Khent.

The main city of this nome was Tjaru, Greek Sile,
and in Arabic surely this was QANTaru.

We find that the Bantu Bukusu term èènì meaning "in front of" would support the Old Kingdom Pharaonic hntj "in front of", so that we would suggest that the original root of *hanti- viz. *anti- goes back to an original concept meaning "in front of", i.e. "opposite from" the viewer. The Pharaonic versions of the term would suggest a pharyngeal origin but the Bantu term would not.

In our view, all languages of the world are related in origin, a conclusion which conforms to modern genetic evidence, so that we do not turn here to the question of what here should be assigned to Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and what should be assigned to Nostratic. Egyptologists to our surprise still do not yet recognize the Indo-European stratum clearly present in Old Kingdom Pharaonic language and until they do, the whole thing is rather moot.

Caucasus Dolmens Russia Deciphered as Astronomy - LexiLine Journal 456

I have recently succeeded in deciphering the megalithic dolmens of the Caucasus in Russia as representing a gigantic sky map of the heavens, i.e. they are a planisphere of the stars.
[Note in the year 2010: the links to the West Caucasus Dolmens Project of Viktor Trifonov no longer exist and have been supplanted by a website on the "Project Archive" at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus. The website of Serg Valganov, The Dolmen Path - Russian Megaliths, at http://megalith.ru/articles/ also no longer exists but can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.]

My decipherment of the Russian dolmens relies on the placement of the position of the dolmens as found on a map [originally] published by Dr. Viktor Trifonov of the West Caucasus Dolmens Project(Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab., 18, St.-Petersburg, 191186 Russia; Tel. +7 (812) 571-50-92, fax +7 (812) 571-62-71; e-mail: admin@archeo.ru.


The map of the positions of the dolmens [was originally] found at http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens/index.htm and http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens/map.1.jpg. [Note in the year 2010: the website of the West Caucasus Dolmens Project is no longer online, but the map of the position of the dolmens is found at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus and also at http://www.russia-ic.com/travel/places/1000/. Pictures of these dolmens are also found at Western Caucasus Dolmens.]

My interpretation of the positions of these dolmens as representing the stars of the major northern stellar constellations has been posted to the LexiLine Files under Russia Karelia and Eastern Europe as the file (shown in the graphic below) caucasusdolmensrussiadecipheredbykaulins.png


For more information, the two major websites which document the megalithic sites in the Caucasus [were originally]:

1. Viktor Trifonov, Prehistoric Megaliths in the Western Caucasus (West Caucasus Dolmens Project), at http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens - now at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus

2. Serg Valganov, The Dolmen Path - Russian Megaliths, at http://megalith.ru/articles/ [this website no longer exists - but can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine]

The Dolmens of Russia are described as follows at the Wikipedia :

"These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometres.... The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and .... While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear. Approximately 3000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect."