The Lion-man, the Sphinx and the Leopard Shrine
Saturday June 1, 2019 2:00pm EST
by Dr Martin Sweatman
Ancient Origins Webinars

What connects the 40,000-year old Lion-man of Hohlenstein Stadel Cave, Germany, the great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt, and the leopard shrines of ancient Catalhoyuk, circa 7,000 BC, in southern Turkey?

Are these great artworks, each in the form of a feline, connected by an ancient zodiac?

It is now known beyond any reasonable doubt that our ancestors, going back over 40,000 years, were excellent astronomers. They invented the constellations that we still use today, gave them names and animal symbols, and invented an astronomical mythology to explain their existence. They watched the skies for millennia, noticing how the stars’ positions gradually changed with the slow process of precession. Although we now know the great feline symbol as the constellation Leo, in Palaeolithic cave art and at Catalhoyuk it instead appears to represent Cancer.

Thus, the 40,000-year old Lion-man represents Cancer on the Winter solstice around 38,000 BC, and the Catalhoyuk leopard shrines probably represent Cancer on the Spring equinox around 7,000 BC.

But what of the Great Sphinx? What does it represent, and exactly how old is it?

In this webinar Martin Sweatman explains how the latest scientific evidence points towards an early Neolithic origin of the Sphinx, meaning that while people at Catalhoyuk prayed in front of their leopard shrines, a lost ancient Egyptian civilization performed their ceremonies under the nose of the Great Sphinx, which was then either a leopard or a lion.

Dr. Martin Sweatman is a scientist at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research, which involves statistical analysis of the motion of atoms and molecules to understand the properties of matter, has helped him to solve one of the greatest puzzles on Earth - the meaning of ancient artworks stretching back over 40,000 years. He is the author of Prehistory Decoded.
martinsweatman.blogspot.com


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Exodus: Escaping Egypt
Saturday May 18, 2019 4:00pm EST
by Ted Loukes
Exodus: Escaping Egypt - Ancient Origins Webinar

The actuality of the Exodus has generated much discussion and argument throughout the centuries. The fact that the Exodus is not referred to in Egyptian documents or inscriptions does not in any way mean that it didn’t take place. The Egyptians were masters of spin and never held back in rewriting their own history to maintain the universal balance that was Ma’at. There are no lengthy accounts of battles lost, no stories of plague or famines; they simply ignored them; in fact, to the Egyptian mind, to write something down was to give it life and power. With the death and destruction brought about by the earthquakes that hit the Eastern Delta, Pharaoh was only too keen to let Moses and his followers go. According to the Bible, the proto-Israelites were given everything that they might need for their journey, including gold and silver; such was the urgency of the Egyptians to get rid of them. But how did they leave? Which way did they go to escape Egypt’s boundaries? If the reality of the Exodus has raised questions, then even more so has the route taken by Moses and his followers. Many theories as to the actual route out of Egypt have been put forward without much clarity.  Let us investigate the possible course taken by Moses and the proto-Israelites from after the tenth plague to the point that they exited Egypt and began their journey across the Sinai. Let us look at these first stations of the Exodus from Egypt with a 21st-century eye and, through a mixture of modern and ancient thinking, derive a hypothesis as to why and where these events took place.

We’re excited to be joined once again by special Ancient Origins contributor, author, and expert Ted Loukes for an exploration into the mysteries of the past.

Ted Loukes - Ancient Origins Premium

Ted Loukes is an independent researcher in the field of ancient civilizations. He has been on a voyage of discovery for over forty years, questioning man's origins by digging through ancient texts, inscriptions, myths and legends. His particular fascination with Ancient Egypt began in 1972 with a visit to the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition, held at the British Museum. His book Moses and Akhenaten: Brothers in Alms  grew from a single page blog post to a two-and-a-half-year project that incorporated several field trips to Egypt herself. This passion led to the forming of GnT Tours, specializing in small private tours in Luxor focusing on the archaeology and Egyptology of the Tombs & Temples of Ancient Egypt. 

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Visit TedLoukes.com and find out more in his book Moses and Akhenaten: Brothers in Alms.


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The Trojan War - Fiction or Fact?
Saturday April 27, 2019 2:00pm EST
by Petros Koutoupis
The Trojan War - Fiction or Fact? - Ancient Origins Webinars

Fiction: Homer’s Iliad depicts the narrative of an epic saga of a war fought between the Achaeans (Greece) and the Trojans (who were not Turks, but lived in what is now Turkey) during the late Bronze Age circa 1250 BC.  The catalyst for the war is the abduction – or some say voluntary elope – of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, by Paris, prince of Troy and son of King Priam, on a trade envoy to Sparta.  Menelaus urges his brother King Agamemnon of Mycenae and high king of the Achaeans, to enforce a pact all the suitors of Helen swore to protect her marriage to Menelaus.  Agamemnon issues the ‘Call to Arms” and, after sacrificing his own daughter Iphigenia for fair winds, a thousand Greek ships set sail for the shores of Ilium/Troy. There ensues a war that lasts for ten years, as the walls of Ilium were built by Poseidon and Apollo and are impenetrable. Troy is breached and burnt to the ground, the king and princes killed, the women raped, and the queen enslaved and so ends the war… but not the legend.

Facts: In 1870 self-styled archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began digging at a site in Turkey called Hisarlik. Schliemann had his lifelong dream fulfilled when he uncovered the citadel of Troy and a golden treasure he believed belonged to King Priam. He dug a trench which revealed nine layers of human occupation spanning from 2700 BC to 500 AD Roman time, but in his eager enthusiasm he amateurishly destroyed many artifacts and evidence.  Archaeologists generally attribute level VI to Homer’s Troy. Some of the layers show destruction by fire – such as the first circa 2700 BC, and some by earth quake, some even of a long siege, but can any of these concretely prove that the Trojan War, actually happened?

Petros KoutoupisPetros Koutoupis, independent historical researcher, conducts an investigation whether we can safely say if the Trojan war was indeed fact—or fiction.

Petros Koutoupis is an author and an independent historical researcher, focusing predominantly on the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age periods of the Eastern Mediterranean and general Near East. Fluent in modern Greek, Petros has additional knowledge in languages that include ancient & Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew, and a good fundamental understanding of Aramaic, Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Akkadian. He has always relied on the original sources for interpreting some of our most misunderstood historical and mythological texts.  His most recent book is: Biblical Origins: An Adopted Legacy.


www.petroskoutoupis.com

You can also follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pkoutoupis

 


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Captain Morgan's Inca Gold
Friday March 22, 2019 4:00pm EST
by Ashley Cowie
Ancient Origins Webinars

In 1671, the legendary Captain Morgan sacked Panama City and secured “176 mules of gold, silver and pearls” and this treasure has never been recovered. In December 2016, historian Ashley Cowie ventured to a remote Caribbean island in search of Morgan's gold and in this webinar he will discuss his findings and the next stages of his quest.

Ashley CowieAshley Cowie is a Scottish historian, author, and filmmaker exploring and investigating  myths and legends, ancient cultures and kingdoms, science and psychology, artifacts, iconography, and architecture.

Visit AshleyCowie.com and find out more in his in-depth books, A Twist in Time, Secret Viking Sea Chart, and others.

Watch Ashley's new Live Youtube series "Mythology" here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ashleycowiestories


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Ancient Gods: Conspiracy of Silence
Saturday February 23, 2019 4:00pm EST
by Jim Willis
Ancient Gods: Conspiracy of Silence - Ancient Origins Webinars

Where do we come from? What are the origins of modern civilization? Can we credit ancient gods?

Do the world's pyramids, the Nazca Lines, Easter Island statues, and other enigmatic structures, archaeological wonders, and geographic anomalies contain evidence of ancient deities?

Sifting through the historical and archaeological evidence, Jim Willis probes the myths, stories, history, and facts of ancient civilizations, lost technologies, past catastrophes, archetypal astronauts, and bygone religions to tease out the truth of our distant past and modern existence. In his thought-provoking second Ancient Origins webinar, Jim will take an in-depth look at the facts, fictions, and controversies of our ancestors, our origins, who we are as a people—and who might have come before us. He will tackle nagging stories of ancient gods, ancestors, alien visitors, theories and potential explanations.

Existential questions with insightful and hopeful answers are in the mix as we’re joined by Ancient Origins contributor and author Jim Willis for an exploration into an ancient conspiracy of silence.

Having earned his master's degree in theology from Andover Newton Theological School, Jim Willis is the author of eleven books on religion and spirituality. He has been an ordained minister for over forty years while working part-time as a carpenter, hosting own drive-time radio show, as well as being an arts council director and adjunct college professor in the fields of World Religions and Instrumental Music. His current residence in the woods of South Carolina inspired his books Supernatural Gods: Spiritual Mysteries, Psychic Experiences, and Scientific Truths, and Jim digs deep into this essential topic with Ancient Gods: Lost Histories, Hidden Truths and the Conspiracy of Silence.


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The 10 Plagues of Egypt - Fact or Fiction?
Saturday January 26, 2019 4:00pm EST
by Ted Loukes
The 10 Plagues of Egypt - Fact or Fiction?

One of the most well-known stories from The Bible’s Old Testament is that of the Plagues of Egypt. According to the book of Exodus, Moses tells Pharaoh that terrible afflictions will strike his kingdom if he doesn’t let the Israelite slaves leave. Pharaoh is unmoved, and so begins a series of devastating events that culminates in the death of all the first-born of the Egypt. First the Nile turns to blood, then Egypt is infested with frogs, then gnats, followed by flies, then the animals begin to die. The people are afflicted by boils and fall sick. The land is ravaged by hail, followed by the relentless destruction caused by locusts. The sun goes dark in the sky, and finally the Angel of Death takes the lives of all the eldest children. It was the last of these ten plagues that finally convinced Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. It’s a hugely complicated story that sets up the Exodus, but did it happen, and if so, how?

Most myths and legends are based, somewhere far back in time, on real historical events. Events that would have been talked about for years, handed down by word of mouth for generation after generation until they became so twisted and convoluted in their telling that they no longer reflected the real event. They became seemingly impossible incidents, often driven by supernatural forces. These twists and turns to the original stories have so obscured their own origins, that little scientific effort is made to search beyond the veil of myth and legend to find what might actually lie at their origin.

There have been many attempts to explain the plagues, most of which have proved unsatisfactory, especially regarding the final one, that of the slaying of the eldest child. Let us look at these 10 Plagues of Egypt with a 21st century eye and, through a mixture of modern and ancient thinking, derive a hypothesis as to how and why they could have happened.

We’re pleased to be joined once again by special Ancient Origins contributor and author Ted Loukes for an exploration into the mysteries of the past.

Ted LoukesTed Loukes is an independent researcher in the field of ancient civilisations. Born in the sixties, he has been on a voyage of discovery for over forty years, questioning man's origins by digging through ancient texts, inscriptions, myths and legends. He moved to South Africa in 1990 and set up home in Johannesburg, appropriately just a few kilometres from the Cradle of Humankind. His particular fascination with Ancient Egypt began in 1972 with a visit to the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition, held at the British Museum. His book Moses and Akhenaten: Brothers in Alms grew from a single page blog post to a two and a half year project that incorporated two field trips to Egypt itself. He is currently learning to read hieroglyphic. Facebook  |  Twitter

Visit TedLoukes.com and find out more in his book Moses and Akhenaten: Brothers in Alms.


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Gaul's Secret Solar Alignment: Mysterious French Busts Reveal A Landscape Mystery Even Deeper Than Rennes-le-Chateau
Saturday December 15, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Ashley Cowie
Gaul's Secret Solar Alignment - Ancient Origins Premium Webinars

The busts of the dead historians were a clue. But would the path to solving the mystery change history?

Rennes-le-Château is a small hilltop village in Languedoc in southern France that become famous internationally after the 1982 worldwide bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. A 19th-century priest, Father Bérenger Saunière, allegedly followed landscape alignments measured between village churches leading him to a valuable sacred treasure and while this story has always had its skeptics, when Dan Brown retold it in his 2003 bestseller The Da Vinci Code, Rennes-le-Château saw over 100,000 mystery seeking tourists in the first year.

This tale of mystery and intrigue reflects many of the clues and components that have made Rennes-le-Château famous. It revolves around a French hilltop village church that is located amidst mysterious landscape alignments. What is more, an inner circle of famous French historical figures all shared a secret about the village—a secret of great and ancient astronomical significance.

Join historian Ashley Cowie as he examines a set of similar landscape alignments around the French village of Alaise, including one rare alignment of eight village churches. What does this incredible alignment point towards? Why are the busts of two prominent Frenchmen located upon the alignment? And, is the alignment a monument to one of the most seminal battles in European history? All of these questions and many more will be answered in this exclusive Ancient Origins Premium webinar.

Ashley CowieAshley Cowie is a Scottish historian, author, and filmmaker exploring and investigating  myths and legends, ancient cultures and kingdoms, science and psychology, artifacts, iconography, and architecture.

Visit AshleyCowie.com and find out more in his in-depth books, A Twist in Time, Secret Viking Sea Chart, and others.


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Friends, Romans, Countrymen: A peek into the daily life of a Roman citizen
Tuesday November 27, 2018 2:00pm EST
by Victor Labate
Friends, Romans, Countrymen: A peek into the daily life of a Roman citizen

Who were you in Ancient Rome? What was your life like?

Strolling down the Via Appia, on your way to the Forum, would you inspect the new range of togas at the shops, pay a tribute to your favorite god at the temple, pop in to the bank to acquire some Roman  coins, for it may be expensive to live in Rome, or visit the thermae to indulge in a Roman bath, before you dodge the traffic of carts and busy pedestrians on your way home?

Your home? Are you one of the privileged senators from the ancient patrician families to own a Roman Villa, the equestrian class to own a house or domus, complete with atrium and impluvium, or an ordinary plebeian who lives in an overcrowded apartment block or insulae?

Roman Emperors indulged in luscious dinner orgies in the triclinium of their villas, but what simple fare did the ordinary Romans buy at the market and how did they prepare it?  Come and taste Roman cuisine and stay for a board game after dinner. Speaking of dinner parties, since you were not invited to Caesar's dinner, would you like to go to the amphitheater to watch the gladiators, or attend the stadium to watch your favorite chariot team, this Saturday? And by the way, how do you know which day it is? Who developed the Calendar?

How would you prove your identity as a Roman, should the Praetorian Guard confront you? Do you have a passport to travel freely about the vast Roman Empire? Speaking of travel, why do Roman roads still exist? What concrete did they use to build their roads and famous aqueducts? 

Who were the legendary Roman legions who conquered the lands for this empire and what weapons did they use? Conquering other countries means an increase in the slave population.  How wretched would your life be as a Roman slave?

We’re joined by Ancient Origins Premium contributor and author of Ancient Roman Cuisine and Recipes, Victor Labate, who reveals what your life would have been like in Ancient Rome.

 Victor Labate is a Roman history enthusiast and the owner of the website Romae-Vitama site focused on ancient Roman history. Victor is a history buff who enjoys Roman history, visiting historical places, museums, and is author of the eBook "Ancient Roman Cuisine and Recipes | Join Victor on Facebook


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Dismembering the Great Goddess
Saturday October 20, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Martini Fisher
Dismembering the Great Goddess

The reign of the Great Goddess was stable enough to endure for thousands of years - but then something went wrong…

In the 19th century, when Swiss scientist Johann Jakob Bachofen showed that a matrifocal age once existed in Europe where the mother, not the father, was as the head of the family or household, this notion was vehemently resisted. Today, “feminine” and “feminism”, with their many variations, has become somewhat of a loaded word. This distaste of femininity started long before the rise of the religions known to us today. In fact, it started with the rebellion against the Great Goddess.

The myths and attributes of the Great Goddess are remarkably similar all over the world. Her nature all-encompassing, she can be empowering and terrifying for men and women alike. The reign of the Great Goddess was stable enough to endure for thousands of years - but then something went wrong. In the new myths, Tiamat, the Great Mother of the ancient Mesopotamians who had been the “mother of all beings” and hence a primary source of creation, came to symbolize chaos. Marduk then dismembered Tiamat to then rebuild and reorder the cosmos out of the pieces of her lifeless body. However, Tiamat was not the one who was supposed to be sacrificed.

The oldest discernible signs of rebellion against the Goddess culture have been found in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The tradition had been that the semi-divine king, high priest, and consort of the goddess, was supposed to be sacrificed, but by the time the Gilgamesh epic was written down, around 2800 BC, the situation had changed drastically and, thousands of years later, no one recognized the Great Goddess anymore.

What happened to the Great Goddess? How did she become replaced by goddesses such as Demeter and scary ladies such as Medusa?

We’re joined by special Ancient Origins Premium contributor and author of Time Maps: Matriarchy and the Goddess Culture, Martini Fisher who investigates the fate of the Great Goddess in history.

Martini Fisher Martini Fisher is a Mythographer and Author.

Her first published work is “Wayang: Stories of the Shadow Puppets,” a look at the ancient stories of Javanese creation myths from a traditional performing arts standpoint. With Mathematician Dr. R.K Fisher, Martini wrote another series of books, “Time Maps.” Combining both their expertise, they revisit world history from the beginning, reviewing and questioning facts with mathematical precision and historical curiosity.

Martini continues to gather myths and legends around the globe to present them in a relevant and approachable way for modern audiences.

See Martini’s work at MartiniFisher.com and her books can be found on Amazon.  

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Are You Related to a Cabbage? The DNA Evidence for Evolution
Saturday September 22, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Ian McKay
Are You Related to a Cabbage? The DNA Evidence for Evolutio

Could you be a member of the cabbage family?

Genetic ancestry testing can provide surprising insights into where we come from – going back thousands or tens of thousands of years we can find unexpected ancestral connections with populations all around the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Maybe we can prove that we share a common ancestor with some famous person- royalty perhaps?  

How does genetic ancestry work, and what if we took it to extreme limits; what if we were could trace our ancestors back hundreds of thousands, millions, or even billions of years? What would we find then?

This eye-opening premiere webinar with expert researcher Dr Ian McKay explores the evidence for our hidden connections to other species, whether they are the Ice Age Neanderthals or (you probably guessed it from the title) the humble cabbage!

But is there evidence for these concealed links? Do we have characteristics today that we inherited from other species which might affect us positively or negatively? If this is true, is this evidence for evolution, and actually; is the scientific evidence for evolution really on such a firm footing? And what are its implications for religion?

Dr Ian McKay began his education in 1981 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Zoology which included an MSc and PhD in Palaeontology, where he studied a unique fauna of fossil beetles that lived in the time of the dinosaurs in order to reconstruct the prehistoric environment that they lived in. Recently Ian has taken over the role of Head: Education and Outreach for the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand and Education Specialist for the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaoesciences an NRF funded consortium of palaeosciences researchers including the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of Cape Town Department of Archaeology and the major natural history museums.

As long as he can remember, Ian has been passionate about engaging with the public on evolution, palaeontology, and genetics to explain and discuss all the interesting topics that arise from these fields.


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