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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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Megalith: Studies in Stone
Saturday August 25, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Hugh Newman
Megalith: Studies in Stone

Encoded with sophisticated mathematics and alignments, do stone circles hint at advanced ancient understandings?

Over 1000 stone circles have been recorded in Britain, and sites such as Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, Karahunge in Armenia, and Msoura in Morocco are rewriting the dating and origins of the stone circle builders. These rings of stone have now been recorded worldwide.

Subtle earth energies, underground water, and unusual have been detected at these sites. The positioning of the formations in relation to other sites within the landscape suggests their geomantic location was an integral part of their design.

We’re joined for this intriguing AO Premium webinar by founder of Megalithomania, author, and ancient sites explorer Hugh Newman, who guides us through the mysteries of these sites:  who may have built them—and why.

Hugh will also look at the early theories, interpretations, folklore, and effects these circles have had on antiquarians, artists, and researchers since they were put back in the spotlight by John Aubrey and William Stukeley in the 1600s and 1700s, with some of their early insights now being confirmed by modern science!

Hugh Newman is a special contributor to Ancient Origins, a regular guest on History Channel’s  Ancient Aliens and Search for the Lost Giants  and organizes the annual Megalithomania conferences and tours and co-organizes the Origins Conference in London with Andrew Collins.

For more on this compelling research, see Hugh’s newest book, MEGALITH: Studies In Stone


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Unearthing the Lost Meridian of Tiwanaku’s Temple Builders
Saturday July 14, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Ashley Cowie
Unearthing the Lost Meridian of Tiwanaku’s Temple Builders

The mystical site holds secrets and surprises -  Explore the ancient alignments.

The origins of a massive ritual complex at the ancient city of Tiwanaku in modern-day Bolivia have become blurred by a string of modern researchers who present the stepped-platforms, pyramid mounds, sunken-chambers, and massive finely-cut blocks as evidence of a lost civilization, or extra-terrestrial agency.

Cutting through this modern-fictional noise, this Webinar looks at the astronomical and geodetic conditions at Tiwanaku and reveals how the people aligned their sacred city around an ancient prime meridian. This highly-spiritualized alignment was not only utilized as a practical measuring tool in all architectural and astronomical projects, but it was 'the' axis mundi helping worshipers orient themselves while being 'out there,' on meditational and spiritual quests.

Get ready to dive into the mystical history of Tiwanaku with historian Ashley Cowie on Ancient Origins Premium.

 

 Ashley 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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The Cygnus Key: A Chance to Meet the Denisovans - The True Founders of Civilization
Saturday June 30, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Andrew Collins
The Cygnus Key: A Chance to Meet the Denisovans - The True Founders of Civilization

How did civilization arise, and was it gifted to humanity in some manner?

Two popular theories seem to provide answers. One is that civilization arose as a result of the survivors of sunken Atlantis reaching foreign shores, bringing with them remnants of their high technology and profound ancient wisdom.

The other is that the greatest civilizations on earth arose through either direct or indirect intervention from aliens.

Yet today we have a third alternative; this being that civilization was gifted to us by an advanced human society that had developed an increased level of technological and spiritual development even before the majority of our ancestors departed Africa around 50,000-60,000 years ago! We speak of the Denisovans, whose existence was not even known about until the genome of a finger bone from the Denisova Cave in Siberia was sequenced in 2010. Exploration has shown that before vanishing from the pages of prehistory some 40,000 years ago the Denisovans achieved an extraordinary level of development—in fact, the Denisovans might well have recorded the motions of the celestial bodies, including long-term eclipse cycles, which they used to create numerical systems involving key numbers such as 54, 108, 216 and 432 preserved to this day in cosmological myths and legends, as well as in sacred architecture, all around the world.

How was this possible? What type of mind can have achieved such an advanced state of development even before the rise of human civilization?

We’re joined by Ancient Origins contributor and author Andrew Collins for an exploration into the prehistoric past, and the mysterious founding of civilization.

Andrew Collins is author of new book The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt. Andrew is one of the world’s foremost experts on Göbekli Tepe, having first visited the site in 2004. He has been investigating its Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture for over 20 years, and is the author of various books that feature the subject including From the Ashes of Angels (1996), The Cygnus Mystery (2006) and Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods (2014). 

Visit AndrewCollins.com and find out more in his book The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe, and the Birth of Egypt


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From Religion to Reality: One Ring to Rule Them All
Saturday May 26, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Jim Willis
From Religion to Reality: One Ring to Rule Them All

Searching for meaning in the world of religion…

40,000 years ago, across Europe and Asia, our ancestors felt the need to crawl deep underground, braving the depths and darkness, to paint magnificent images on the walls of caves.  Why?

The incredible megalithic temple called Gobekli Tepe was built 11,600 years ago, before the Agricultural Revolution, before humans had discovered how to grow their own food to support such an endeavor. It begs the question - Why?

6,000 years later humans dragged stones, weighing up to four tons, 140 miles across England to build a monument called Stonehenge. Why? 

On an equatorial band circling the earth, our ancestors felt the need to build pyramids. Why?

Over the course of a thousand years, no less than five world religions were born that are still a source of faith and practice to billions of people around the world. Why?

Over the last hundred years scientists have probed deep into the nature of material existence itself, uncovering a wild and whacky quantum universe unimaginable until our day were it not for the visions and experiences of shamans and mystics.  What they discovered has caused even the most secular people to ask the question, "Why?"

The great questions of humanity have been the same for as long as there have been humans around to ask them:  "Who are we?"..."Why are we here?"..."What is our purpose?"... "Is there more?"

Why does religion even exist? Is religion merely an opiate of the people, salving over the human need to solve questions about the Great Unknown? Or is it so much more? Could there be a very real Great Unknown, such that we can communicate with It, and It with us?

Religion, going all the way back to the earliest forms of Shamanism, attempts to bridge the gap between the material world and the metaphysical, or spiritual, world.  It may even prove to be the thing that made us human in the first place!

We’re joined by Ancient Origins contributor and author Jim Willis for an exploration into the biggest, most vital questions.

Having earned his master's degree in theology from Andover Newton Theological School, Jim Willis is the author of nine 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 essential topics with Ancient Gods: Lost Histories, Hidden Truths and the Conspiracy of Silence.

Visit JimWillis.net 


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The Tall Ones, Megaliths & Technology – The Adena of Prehistoric America
Saturday May 5, 2018 4:00pm EST
by Jason Jarrell
The Tall Ones, Megaliths & Technology – The Adena of Prehistoric America

Mysterious Serpent Mounds and Legends of the Tall Ones…

2000 years ago, the Adena mound builders initiated widespread earthwork construction, socio-economic exchange, and intense ritualism in the Ohio River Valley in the United States. The Adena people constructed artificial burial mounds of earth ranging from a few inches to 65 feet high, and megalithic sites including mysterious serpent mounds. There were also individuals among the Adena of extraordinary height and powerful builds. This presentation explores these and other fascinating topics relating to the Adena Culture.

Join regular Ancient Origins contributor Jason Jarrell in his premier Expert Webinar, as he covers the fascinating history and enduring enigmas of the Adena Culture.

Jason Jarrell is an investigative historian and avocational archaeologist studying many subjects including depth psychology, Biblical mysteries, political science, and comparative mythology. He has presented at conferences on ancient mysteries and has appeared on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens television series.

Ages of the Giants by Jason Jarrell and Sarah Farmer, traces the ancient North American giants through 4000 years of prehistoric cultures utilizing archaeological data. Learn more at ParadigmCollision.com


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Hunting Ancient South American Gold
Saturday March 3, 2018 6:30pm EST
by Ashley Cowie
Hunting Ancient South American Gold

The power of gold, and a history of treasure.

 

Join Ancient Origins Premium with historian Ashley Cowie, streaming live from the world’s largest collection of ancient golden artifacts at the MUSEUM OF GOLD in Bogota, Colombia!

 

Ashley gets exclusive access to film in the museum to showcase history – LIVE! Follow along as he reveals the supreme role of gold in South American creation myths. What were the ancient techniques of gold mining and the molding processes? Discover gold in the sacred landscapes of the Muisca people, and learn what happened with the arrival of the 16 century Spanish treasure hunters – and even the modern-day battle for Colombia’s lost treasures.

 

 

You won’t forget this rare peek into an ancient ‘golden age’!


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