How to Build a Pyramid

The complexities of the Great Pyramid's design and construction could not have been deciphered without the aid of 3-D imaging software. (Dassault Systemes)

How to Build a Pyramid Volume 60 Number 3, May/June 2007

by Bob Brier

Hidden ramps may solve the mystery of the Great Pyramid's construction.

Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains. An estimated 2 million stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons went into its construction. When completed, the 481-foot-tall pyramid was the world's tallest structure, a record it held for more than 3,800 years, when England's Lincoln Cathedral surpassed it by a mere 44 feet.

We know who built the Great Pyramid: the pharaoh Khufu, who ruled Egypt about 2547-2524 B.C. And we know who supervised its construction: Khufu's brother, Hemienu. The pharaoh's right-hand man, Hemienu was "overseer of all construction projects of the king" and his tomb is one of the largest in a cemetery adjacent to the pyramid.

What we don't know is exactly how it was built, a question that has been debated for millennia. The earliest recorded theory was put forward by the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt around 450 B.C., when the pyramid was already 2,000 years old. He mentions "machines" used to raise the blocks and this is usually taken to mean cranes. Three hundred years later, Diodorus of Sicily wrote, "The construction was effected by mounds" (ramps). Today we have the "space alien" theory--those primitive Egyptians never could have built such a fabulous structure by themselves; extraterrestrials must have helped them.

via How to Build a Pyramid

USERKAF’S SUN TEMPLE AT ABU SIR.

Abu Sir has been called the site of the forgotten kings of the 5th Dynasty. One can see only 3 pyramids from a distance; those of Sahure -- Nyuserre -- Neferirkare. Abusir is about half way between Giza and Saqqara. Located here is another large royal cemetery of the Old Kingdom composed of four pyramids belonging to kings of the 5th Dynasty and the surrounding tombs built by royal family and officials. Additionally the kings of the 5th Dynasty constructed Sun Temples on the desert to the northwest of the pyramids. The existence of these Sun Temples as well as of the royal pyramids is the most characteristic feature of this area...

Fifth Dynasty Necropolis and Sun Temples at Abu Ghurab

The site of Abu Ghurab is actually part of the site of Abusir. It is about 1 kilometre northeast of the Pyramid of Sahure. Remains of only two sun temples have been found; those of Userkaf (circa 2500-2485 BC) and Nyuserre (circa 2455-2425 BC). These solar temples were probably modeled on the much earlier original sun temple at Heliopolis ...

#

Old Kingdom documents mention six sun temples dating to each of the six kings of the Fifth Dynasty. The oldest of the temples is Userkaf’s sun temple at Abu Sir. The only other one to be discovered and excavated is the sun temple built by Nyuserre, the fifth king of the dynasty (ruled 2455–2425 B.C.E.). Userkaf’s sun temple represents the first known effort of an Egyptian king to build a temple other than his own funerary monument. Userkaf built his sun temple in Abu Sir, a site that would later be utilized for pyramid complexes and sun temples by other Fifth-dynasty kings. Userkaf’s sun temple also represents the first clear example of a temple built and then rebuilt by subsequent kings, a common theme in the later architectural history of Egypt. Both Neferirkare, the third king of the dynasty, and Nyuserre added to the temple. The name of this temple, Nekhen Re (The Stronghold of Re), associates it with early temple enclosures at the town called Nekhen (Stronghold) in Middle Egypt. The excavator, Herbert Ricke, believed that the first building stage of the temple contained the same key elements as the earlier Stronghold: a rectangular enclosure and a central mound of sand. Neferirkare added an obelisk with altars in front of it in the second building phase. Thus this sun temple contained the first-known example of this typically Egyptian form. Phases three and four, built by Nyuserre, included five benches. Ricke thought the benches were platforms where priests placed offerings to the god. He discovered a stele inside one of the benches inscribed with the name of the “Great Phyle,” one of the five groups of priests and workers responsible for work at the temple on a rotating basis. It is possible that the five benches represented each of these five groups, though archaeologists found no other steles. A causeway linked the sun temple with a valley temple. Nyuserre may have constructed the valley temple during the fourth phase of building, or he may have rebuilt an original building of Userkaf’s complex.

LINK

Mountains of the Moon

The concept of the Mountains of the Moon, as associated with Africa, originated with DIOGENES, a Greek merchant who, in about A.D. 50, traveled inland in East Africa and reportedly sighted a range of snowcapped mountains feeding two large bodies of water. The next century, PTOLEMY, a hellenized Egyptian living in the North African city of Alexandria and a renowned geographer, produced an early map of Africa on which a group of mountains south of the EQUATOR were identified as Lunae Montes, or “Mountains of the Moon,” and wrote about them as the source of the NILE RIVER.

The source of the Nile was not determined for centuries. In 1613, PEDRO PÁEZ, a Spanish missionary sent out by Portugal, reported that the source of the Blue Nile, one of the two branches converging into the great river, was Lake Tana in the mountains of Ethiopia, a discovery corroborated by Scotsman JAMES BRUCE in 1770. Then, in 1858, Englishman JOHN HANNING SPEKE theorized that the source of the White Nile, the main branch, was Lake Victoria, confirmed by Anglo-American SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY in 1875. A decade later, in 1889, Stanley and MEHMED EMIN PASHA explored the Ruwenzori Mountains on the border of present-day Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was determined that the Ruwenzori were at least part of the watershed feeding the Nile, some streams flowing southward through Lake Edward and Lake George to Lake Victoria and to the Nile, and others flowing northward to Lake Albert and to the Nile. The range thus came to be associated with the fabled Mountains of the Moon.

The Ruwenzori Range consists of six mountains, including Mount Stanley, named after the explorer, with Margherita Peak, at 16,762 feet above sea level, the third highest summit in Africa. Mount Speke is named after John Hanning Speke; Mount Emin, after Mehmed Emin Pasha; Mount Baker, after SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER; and Mount Gessi, after Italian Romlo Gessi, who explored the Nile to Lake Albert in 1876. In 1906, LUIGI AMEDEO DI SAVOIA D’ABRUZZI completed the first ascent of Margherita Peak, naming it for Italy’s queen mother; he climbed five of the six peaks in the range as well. Mount Luigi di Savoia is named after him.

There is no way to prove that the Ruwenzori were in fact Diogenes’s and Ptolemy’s mountains. It is possible that Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, and Mount Kenya, the second-highest, both closer to the Indian Ocean, were the mountains viewed by Diogenes and represented on Ptolemy’s map. Yet the name is widely used for the Ruwenzori.

THE ARCTIC DISCOVERED

Dwindling Arctic Sea Ice

According to a new NASA study, Arctic perennial sea ice has been decreasing at a rate of 9 percent per decade since the 1970s. The changes in Arctic ice may be a harbinger of global climate change, says Josefino Comiso, researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. In a recent Journal of Climate paper, Comiso notes that most of the recent global warming occurred over the last decade, with the largest temperature increase occurring over North America. Researchers suspect the loss of Arctic sea ice may be caused by changing atmospheric pressure patterns over the Arctic that move sea ice around, and by warming Arctic temperatures that result from the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The image above shows a comparison of composites over the Arctic Circle, acquired in 1979 (top) and 2003 (bottom) by the DMSP Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI). The first image shows the minimum sea ice concentration for the year 1979, and the second image shows the minimum sea ice concentration in 2003.

#

People have been living within the Arctic Circle for several thousand years, but for much of that time they did not have any communication with peoples outside their region. In the ancient civilizations centered around the Mediterranean, peoples’ ideas about the North Pole region were completely speculative, often based on myths. Rumors of a cold region far to the north must have reached some of these ancients; mariners and merchants would have met men who had had some experience with the polar region.

Probably the oldest known account of contact with either polar region was that of the voyage by Pytheas, a Greek from Massalia (present-day Marseilles, in France), about 325 B.C. He referred to an island north of Britain— “Thule,”—and a frozen sea, but exactly what land Thule was or how far north it was could only be imagined, considering how little geography of the Earth was known. The ancient Greeks were nonetheless quite curious about the unknown north and gave it the name Arktos, “the bear,” the same name for the constellation that appears in the northern sky and that today is still known as the Great Bear. Some Greeks believed that people called the Hyperboreans (those beyond the north wind) were living in a paradise so far north that they escaped the harsh climate associated with the Arctic.

In the centuries that followed, little true knowledge of the Arctic region was gained. Maps of the later Greeks and Romans, for instance, continued to be based heavily on fantasy and speculation rather than exploration and knowledge. The Roman historian Tactitus (ca. A.D. 55–120) described people of the north who were probably those known today as Lapps, but few people would have known of such writings. In the 10th and 11th centuries, however, this changed for some Europeans when Norwegian Vikings moved westward, first to Iceland and then to Greenland.

About the year 1000, a few even briefly settled a land to the west that they named Vinland, now believed to have been the tip of Newfoundland. The Vikings brought tales of wild, hostile people back to Iceland and Norway. They told also of a climate warm and habitable to the south and impossibly cold to the north. All of this was set down in long accounts known as sagas, which record the explorations of the Norwegian Vikings in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. Few people outside the Viking community, however, knew of these sagas.

In 1555, Olaus Magnus, the Catholic archbishop of Sweden, published a treatise called A History of the Northern Peoples, which drew in part on Viking accounts of travels in the New World—that is, Greenland and Vinland. This account was the basis of European knowledge about the Arctic for the next century. Meanwhile, by the end of the 16th century, exploration and an interest in geography and cartography had vastly improved Europeans’ sense of what the Earth looked like. In 1595, a comprehensive atlas of the world, the work of the great Belgian mapmaker Gerardus Mercator, contained a chart of the Arctic. The chart asserted that under the North Pole “lies a bare rock in the midst of the sea. Its circumference is almost 33 French miles, and it is all of magnetic stone.” Mercator also described a giant whirlpool at the Pole into which poured all the polar waters.

The reference to “magnetic stone” reflected the fact that by this time mariners knew that the magnetic needles of their compasses pointed to the North Magnetic Pole when in the Northern Hemisphere and to the South Magnetic Pole when in the Southern Hemisphere. Since about 1450, too, some were beginning to realize that the North Magnetic Pole was not exactly the same as the “true north”—the imaginary point at the opposite ends of the Earth where all the lines of longitude meet. The mixture of fact, near fact, and pure fiction exemplified by Mercator’s chart characterizes the state of knowledge about the North Polar Region circa 1600. Speculation and guesswork had not and could not provide accurate information about the geography of the Arctic. Exploration of the area by ship or overland would still be required to solve the mystery of what lay inside the Arctic Circle and at the North Pole.

The search for sea routes linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the top of North America (the Northwest Passage) and across the top of Eurasia (the Northeast Passage) as well as the journeys of whalers and sealers into unknown northern waters brought about the discovery and the exploration of the Arctic. By the mid-1800s, the Arctic Circle around the North Pole was complete, but what was inside was still largely a mystery.

MOTTE AND BAILEY

At the beginning of the eleventh century the motte was the most widespread form of castle in northern Europe (except the British Isles and Scandinavia).

The castle was primarily the residence of the lord, but it eventually functioned as a treasury (place where valuable items are kept), armory (storage facility for weapons), and center of local government. Lords first built castles in order to defend their fiefs. The original castles were little more than hills surrounded by ditches and topped with wooden forts. These forts were known as motte and bailey castles. “Motte” was the original term for a “moat,” a deep ditch that surrounded a castle to provide protection from invaders. The bailey was a hill constructed with the dirt that had been removed in digging the motte. Usually located at the fringes of a territory, a castle could be built quickly and was cheap enough to abandon in a hurry.

Motte and bailey castles were only built as temporary measures. As quickly as possible, the Normans began constructing permanent fortresses in stone. In these, the keep, an enormous tower incorporating living accommodation, a chapel, and storerooms, was the most important feature. The White Tower in the Tower of London is a perfect example. A bailey, consisting of a large, well-defended gatehouse and a series of square towers joined by a high wall named the curtain, was next to be built. The whole was then surrounded by a dry ditch or wet moat, crossed by a drawbridge. Experience revealed that the angles of the square towers were vulnerable to siege catapults, so round towers that provided a deflective surface replaced them.

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

EGYPT: FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, OVERVIEW

The Pyramid of Pepi II ('Pepi is most stable in Life') Original Height - 52.5 m Length of Side - 78.5m

A - Pyramid of Pepi II E - Satellite pyramid B - Pyramid of Queen Udjebten F - Enclosure Wall C - Pyramid of Queen Neit G - Funerary Temple D - Pyramid of Queen Ipuit

Burial chambers within the pyramid: A - Entrance E - corridor B - First Corridor F - Antechamber C - Vestibule G - Burial Chamber D - Granite slabs H - Sarcophagus

Pepi II was the last pharaoh of the Old Kingdom to build the 'classic' style pyramid complex, the mortuary temple depicts food and many other items which Pepi II would need in the Afterlife. The pyramid is south of Saqqara and was first excavated by Gustave Jequier in 1929.

The term “First Intermediate Period” has been employed by scholars to mean either the period of the 7th–11th Dynasties or that from the 9th to mid- 11th Dynasties. The designation is still useful when referring to the period from the 7th Dynasty to preconquest 11th Dynasty in its entirety, when there was political fragmentation of the centralized state of the Old Kingdom. The designations “late Old Kingdom” and “Heracleopolitan period,” referring respectively to the 7th–8th Dynasties and the 9th– 10th Dynasties, are more specific.

There is still significant disagreement over the length of the First Intermediate Period. Several years ago consensus seemed to have been reached that the length of the period from the end of the 6th Dynasty to the reunification of Egypt by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II amounted to approximately 140 years. More recently, a number of scholars have argued that the First Intermediate Period lasted approximately 230 years. This position, which accepts the historical reality of the early Heracleopolitan period (9th Dynasty), is adopted here.

As one scholar has observed, the First Intermediate Period “was the consequence of a cumulative loss of wealth and power on the part of the throne extending over a period of 200 years.” In the 5th Dynasty and thereafter, a lesser share of the country’s wealth was expended on the king’s tomb than in the 4th Dynasty, and other institutions, including the temples of the gods (especially the official sun cult of Re), benefitted from the growing prosperity.

As additional land was brought under cultivation in the course of the later Old Kingdom, both through internal colonization and as a result of a burgeoning population, the bureaucracy that administered the country also increased in size. The king had of necessity to assign tracts of agricultural land from the royal domain to a variety of institutions and individuals for their support. The produce from what had once been crown lands not only served to maintain the royal and divine cults along with their buildings, but also provided the priests and support staff with an income. Further grants of land made to officials of the central administration compensated the latter for their services. Frequently, the tracts of land remained part and parcel of the mortuary endowment of these officials in order that they might continue serving their sovereign in the next world. In turn, the priests and officials subdivided the former crown lands for the benefit of their families and dependents. This exchange of goods and services permitted the state to function and led to a more equitable distribution of wealth, which is reflected in the increased size and complexity of the tombs of officials in the Memphite cemeteries in the later Old Kingdom. However, the revenue owed the royal treasury was increasingly diminished. Ultimately this led to the impoverishment of the monarchy, which could no longer afford to support the infrastructure of government.

In the meantime, the initiative appears to have shifted to the provinces. Provincial administration had originally been divided into different branches of activity, each centrally administered from the capital. With the growing prosperity of the provinces, however, the business of managing a single nome became more complicated and ultimately the entire administration of a nome was given to a single individual who lived in the nome and became firmly entrenched there. The process is first observable in southern Upper Egypt, but in time the new type of provincial administration was extended to central and northern Upper Egypt. Eventually the office of provincial governor (nomarch) became hereditary. A number of kings attempted to bring these developments under control. Pepi II appears to have made a final attempt to reassert central authority; after his death, however, the temples in many of the provinces also came under the control of the nomarchs, or, vice versa, the chief priests became nomarchs, and the authority and wealth of the provincial governors was greatly enhanced.

The long reign of Pepi II (more than 90 years) ushered in the end of the Old Kingdom. Pepi’s immediate successors were his own sons. Already of advanced age at the death of their father, they each ruled for only a few years. The pyramid of the 8th Dynasty king Kakare Ibi at South Saqqara was not much larger than the subsidiary pyramids belonging to the queens of Pepi II, and its size and the lack of the customary associated structures in stone clearly demonstrate the diminution of the king’s personal prestige. With the collapse of the central government, foreign trade languished. Pepi II is the last king mentioned in inscriptions at Byblos. Also after Pepi II there is no evidence of expeditions in the Sinai turquoise mines. One text describes a ship’s captain who was engaged at the Gulf of Suez to build a boat for an expedition to Punt, but he and his company of soldiers were killed by local Asiatics, and had to be revenged. Relations with the south also deteriorated. One “caravan leader” was sent out from Aswan with an armed force to punish the tribal chiefs of Lower Nubia. At about the same time there is evidence that Nubians encroached on Egyptian territory, presumably through the desert via Kharga Oasis and then into the Nile Valley. A rock inscription at Khor Dehmit, some 36km south of the First Cataract, records a punitive expedition against local Nubians dispatched by one of the last kings of the 8th Dynasty. In apparent frustration, the kings of the late Old Kingdom or their officials appear to have resorted to magic to destroy their enemies (especially southern ones). Enemies’ names or the names of ethnic/tribal groups were inked on crude clay figurines, which were put in clay jars and ritually buried.

Royal decrees of the late Old Kingdom excavated beneath the ruins of a Roman period mudbrick structure at Quft (ancient Coptos) demonstrate that the Memphite kings of the 8th Dynasty still retained some degree of authority over Upper Egypt, even though this control may have depended to some extent on a dynastic alliance with a prominent Upper Egyptian family from Coptos. Shemai of Coptos married a daughter of one of the kings of the 8th Dynasty and was appointed vizier and overseer of Upper Egypt. At his death, his son Idi became vizier and governor of the 22 nomes of Upper Egypt. The connection between the king at Memphis and Coptos appears to have survived the change of dynasty; Idi himself may have gone on to serve as vizier for the first of a new line of kings from Heracleopolis (9th–10th Dynasties) in the Fayum. At the beginning of the 9th Dynasty a “king’s eldest son” named User was the nomarch of the province where Coptos was located, and was buried at Khozam on its southern border.

Little evidence survives regarding the transition between the late Memphite and Heracleopolitan periods. We have only the historian Manetho’s statement that the first King Khety was “terrible beyond all before him.” Balancing this negative assessment is the fact that the early Heracleopolitan sovereigns were seemingly content to continue the system of provincial administration inherited from their Memphite predecessors. After an initial period of consolidation, however, their successors appear to have made a concerted effort to assert the authority of the crown over the southernmost nomes of Egypt. In a number of places, certainly at Dendera and Naga ed-Deir, the title of nomarch was abolished and the nomes were administered through the local overseers of priests, who were brought under the direct control of an “overseer of Upper Egypt.” The resentment caused by such administrative reforms, and the consequent disenfranchisement of the nomarchic families, may help to explain why southern Upper Egypt ultimately rallied to the polity centered at Thebes.

When trouble came, it began in the far south. Here, the narrowness of the cultivated land and a series of disastrously low Nile floods had led to a famine so severe that some resorted to cannibalism, if a local ruler, Ankhtify of Mo‘alla, is to be believed. In this desperate time, when refugees fled north and south searching for food, a simple border dispute may have led to open hostilities between Ankhtify and his counterpart in the Theban nome to the north.

Ankhtify was nomarch of Nome III of Upper Egypt, but had previously added Nome II of Upper Egypt to his domain, possibly by force. He also laid claim to the office of “commander of the army of Upper Egypt” from Elephantine to Armant. Armant, however, lay in the Theban nome and when the Thebans, in alliance with the Coptites, besieged the fortress, hostilities began in earnest. Grain became a tool of diplomacy and Ankhtify appears to have used it to purchase the neutrality of the nomes of Dendera and Thinis, and succeeded in isolating Thebes and Coptos politically. Since both sides of the struggle paid lip service to the king in far away Memphis, it is difficult to know what role the latter played in these local squabbles. Ankhtify appears to have prevailed, but soon after his death, the Theban nomarch Intef “the Great” triumphed, bringing the six southernmost nomes under his control as “Great Overlord of Upper Egypt.” In the next generation the Theban nomarch Mentuhotep I repudiated the overlordship of Heracleopolis and founded the 11th Dynasty.

From the end of the Old Kingdom, Asiatic pastoralists had been infiltrating the Delta. By the early 10th Dynasty, when the Heracleopolitan rulers were engaged in a struggle with the Thebans for control of Upper Egypt, the Asiatics had occupied much of the Delta and the east bank of the Nile as far south as Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt. Armed bands of Asiatics plunged the entire Delta into chaos, and the Heracleopolitans apparently retained firm control only in the area of Memphis, the Fayum and parts of Middle Egypt. This much is known from the important political testament written by a later Heracleopolitan sovereign for his son and successor, Merikare. While the Heracleopolitans were absorbed with the Asiatic menace, the Theban king (11th Dynasty), Wahankh Intef, seized Nome VIII of Upper Egypt along with the important towns of Abydos, the seat of the Upper Egyptian administration since the Old Kingdom, and Thinis, the provincial capital. In the aftermath of the conquest of Abydos, an uneasy peace prevailed between the two kingdoms. There was at least one attempt by the Heracleopolitans to regain Abydos, but the Thebans successfully fought off the attack.

Meanwhile in the north, a vigorous Heracleopolitan monarch named Khety, like the founder of his line, drove the Asiatics out of Middle Egypt and the Delta, secured Egypt’s boundaries and provided the northern kingdom with a new lease on life. In the fourteenth year of the reign of Wahankh Intef’s grandson, Mentuhotep II, presumably at the instigation of this King Khety, Thinis rebelled and, supported by a Heracleopolitan army under the command of the nomarch Tefibi of Asyut, threw off the Theban yoke. It was perhaps at this point that the Heracleopolitan and Theban kingdoms adopted the policy of peaceful coexistence, which King Khety urged upon his son in the famous literary work, the Instruction for Merikare. Mentuhotep II turned his attention to the oases and Nubia, and the Heracleopolitans were once again able to obtain red granite from the quarries at Aswan.

Both kingdoms, however, were marshaling their resources for the final struggle. The individual stages in that struggle are impossible to document. However, since Mentuhotep II changed his Horus name to Sm3-t3wy (“Uniter of the Two Lands”) sometime around his thirty-ninth regnal year, it was probably at about that time that the Theban king subdued his Heracleopolitan adversaries and founded the Middle Kingdom.

Although earlier notions of social upheaval and anarchy aimed at overthrowing the established order of society are probably to be rejected, there is evidence to suggest a leveling of social distinctions and a certain redistribution of wealth in the course of the First Intermediate Period. As provincial courts on the royal pattern coalesced around the nomarchs, an increasing number of individuals joined the official class. High-ranking titles, such as “hereditary prince” and “count,” which were originally granted only to the most important officers of the royal administration, gradually became cheapened and were claimed by virtually anyone of the least importance. Quite ordinary people now made funerary monuments, usually in the form of simple rectangular tombstones or stelae. Hundreds of these stelae, carved with a funerary prayer, a portrait of the owner and, not uncommonly, a short autobiographical statement, survive. Ordinary people in the Old Kingdom left few monuments, but the hundreds of stelae from the First Intermediate Period attest to the changed circumstances.

The autobiographies on the stelae reveal that the men of the “new middle class” were independent and self-reliant. They were also acquisitive, inclined to the procurement of land, herds and riches of every kind. Frequently, they claimed to be self-made men. At the same time they were civic-minded, and helped to organize the food supplies of their towns, maintained or extended local irrigation systems, set up ferry services and benefitted their fellow citizens in a variety of other ways. They occasionally extended their largesse to other towns and even to neighboring nomes. The texts of the period also attest to a movement of the population from district to district, perhaps in search of a safe haven from the intermittent warfare that later plagued much of Egypt or relief from the recurrent famines. Certain areas may have been depopulated as a result of a series of low Nile floods, and this internal migration was encouraged by the local princes who found themselves in the position of repopulating abandoned settlements. In some cases the newcomers were enticed by the promise of enhanced social status. At the end of the Heracleopolitan period, however, a reaction set in. Epithets at Asyut, Thebes and elsewhere, such as “a spirit of ancient days” or “a prince of the beginning of time,” seemingly reflect an effort on the part of the nomarchs and other high officials to assert themselves and lay claim to hereditary prerogatives.

In recent years, the earlier notion of a “Heracleopolitan intellectual movement” has been questioned. Several literary compositions (including the Eloquent Peasant) formerly ascribed to the this period have been assigned to the early 12th Dynasty. Attempts have even been made to reassign the great classic of Heracleopolitan literature, the Instruction for Merikare, to the later period. According to Gerhart Fecht, the Instruction was composed in the metric system of the Old Kingdom, however, and there are affinities between the idiom of the composition and that of Heracleopolitan period and early 11th Dynasty autobiographical texts. The lengthy autobiographical inscriptions in tombs dating to the Heracleopolitan period, especially those of Idi at Kom el-Kuffar, Ankhtify at Mo‘alla, and Tefibi and Khety II at Asyut, and the shorter texts on contemporaneous private stelae, exhibit considerable inventiveness and originality, and attest to the literary creativity of the times. In the realm of art and architecture, the Heracleopolitan dynasties played an important role in preserving the traditions of the Old Kingdom and passing them on intact, albeit reinterpreted, to the Middle Kingdom.

Further reading

Baer K. 1960. Rank and Title in the Old Kingdom. Chicago.

Bell, B. 1971. The Dark Ages in ancient history. AJA 75:1–26.

Fecht, G. 1972. Der Vorwurf angott in den mahnworten des ipu-wer. Heidelberg.

Fischer, H.G. 1964. Inscriptions from the Coptite Nome Dynasties VI-XI (Analecta Orientalia 40). Rome.

——. 1968. Dendera in the Third Millennium B.C. down to the Theban Domination of Upper Egypt. Locust Valley, NY.

Goedicke, H. 1967. Königliche Dokumente des Alten Reich. Wiesbaden.

Lichtheim, M. 1973. Ancient Egyptian Literature 1: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Berkeley, CA.

——. 1988. Ancient Egyptian Autobiographies Chiefly of the Middle Kingdom. Freiburg and Göttingen.

Redford, D.B. 1986. Egypt and Western Asia in the Old Kingdom. JARCE 23:125–43.

Schenkel, W. 1975. Repères chronologiques de l’histoire rédactionnelle des Coffin Texts. Actes du XXIXe Congrès international des Orientalistes, Égyptologie 2:98–103. Paris.

LINK

LINK

LOUISE ARNER (BOYD, 1887–1972)

American explorer in the Arctic Louise Arner Boyd was born in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco, into a family with a fortune made by her maternal great-grandfather in the California gold rush of 1849. A 1907 debutante, she became socially active in wealthy circles. In 1910, she joined her parents in a yearlong tour of Europe and Egypt.

By 1920, both of her parents had died, and Boyd inherited her family’s considerable wealth. She made another trip to Europe soon afterward. In 1924, she first ventured into the Arctic regions as a passenger on a Norwegian cruise ship.

In 1926, Boyd embarked on her first Arctic exploring expedition. In Norway, she chartered the ship Hobby and, along with a few friends, sailed northward into the Arctic Ocean to Franz Josef Land. This was primarily a recreational cruise in which Boyd and her companions hunted polar bears and seals, recording the trip with both motion pictures and photographs.

Boyd’s next expedition to the Arctic was in summer 1928. Again sailing from Norway on the Hobby, she assisted the Norwegian government in its search efforts for ROALD ENGLEBREGT GRAVNING AMUNDSEN, who had disappeared on a rescue mission on behalf of Italian Arctic explorer UMBERTO NOBILE and his expedition. During the next few months, Boyd and her companions on the Hobby explored eastward and westward from Spitsbergen (present-day Svalbard), covering more than 10,000 miles between Franz Josef Land and the Greenland Sea. Although the search for Amundsen was fruitless, the Norwegian government awarded Boyd the Chevalier Cross of the Order of St. Olav for her efforts. She was the first non-Norwegian woman to be so honored. In addition, she received from the French government the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

In 1931, Boyd undertook a scientifically oriented exploration of the Arctic, aimed at collecting geographic and geological data as well as making a photographic study of Arctic animals and plants. She engaged the ship the Veslekari and sailed to the east coast of GREENLAND. Among her party were a botanist, a big game hunter, and the writer Winifred Menzies. Boyd and her expedition stopped at an Inuit settlement near Scoresby Sound, where she made a study of their life and culture; she later reported the experience in a series of articles published in The Christian Science Monitor in 1932. In her surveys of Greenland’s east coast, she reached the uncharted De Geer Glacier. The region between De Geer Glacier and the Jaette Glacier was later named Louise Boyd Land, in her honor.

In summer 1933, Boyd undertook her third Arctic expedition, under the sponsorship of the AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. Again sailing on the Veslekari, a vessel that she used on all her subsequent Arctic explorations, Boyd and her scientific team studied the glacial features along Greenland’s east coast. They explored north of Scoresby Sound, examining Franz Josef Fjord and King Oscar Fjord. A sonic depth finder was used on this expedition to study subsurface coastal features. Boyd recounted her experiences on this expedition in her book, The Fiord Region of East Greenland, published in 1935.

In 1937 and 1938, Boyd explored the Arctic seas north and east of Norway, between Bear Island and Jan Mayen Island. These two expeditions used ultrasonic depth research to determine the existence of a submarine ridge between these Arctic islands. Boyd’s book about this expedition was to be published in 1940. However, with the onset of World War II in Europe, she was advised by the U.S. government that the information included in it, especially her photographs, could be of a strategic value to the Germans. The work, The Coast of Northeast Greenland, was finally published in 1948.

In 1941, in connection with preparations for the impending war, the National Bureau of Standards commissioned Boyd to undertake an expedition to the Arctic region to study the effects of polar magnetic phenomenon on radio communications. After America’s entry into the war later that year, she became a technical adviser to the War Department on matters dealing with strategic planning in the Arctic. In recognition of her services, the U.S. Army awarded Boyd a Certificate of Appreciation in 1949, citing her valuable contributions of Arctic geographic knowledge to the war effort.

Boyd’s next and last Arctic exploit took place in 1955 when, at the age of 68, she chartered an airplane and became the first woman to fly over the NORTH POLE. She spent her last years in San Francisco, where she died at the age of 85.

Louise Arner Boyd’s Arctic explorations resulted in new geographic information about Greenland’s east coast and revealed significant features about the floor of the Greenland Sea. She was the first woman to play a leading role in the history of modern Arctic exploration.

DELIA JULIA DENNING (MICKIE AKELEY) AKELEY, (1875–1970)

American naturalist in East Africa, wife of Carl Ethan Akeley Delia Akeley, née Denning, also known by her nickname, Mickie, grew up in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. At the age of 13, she ran away from home and never saw her parents again. An aspiring naturalist, she worked as an assistant to the naturalist and taxidermist CARL ETHAN AKELEY, first in Milwaukee, then at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. She married him in 1902.

Three years later, in 1905, the Akeleys set out to Kenya for the purpose of collecting specimens and stayed 18 months. On the safaris, Delia participated in the hunt, becoming skillful with a rifle and shooting an elephant now on display at the Field Museum. Returning to Africa in 1909–11, the Akeleys explored the Belgian Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), her husband in the employ of the American Museum of Natural History in New York at that time. Because Carl was sick for much of this second visit, Akeley oversaw many of the day-to-day responsibilities.

The couple was divorced in 1923. Akeley continued her career in natural science and returned to Africa in 1924–25, collecting for the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and Sciences. She departed from Lamu, Kenya, on the Indian Ocean, crossed Uganda and the Belgian Congo, then traveled along the CONGO RIVER (Zaire River) to Boma, eventually reaching the Atlantic coast. She journeyed by CANOE as well as camel. In the Belgian Congo, she lived among the peoples of the Ituri Forest and studied their hunting and fishing techniques. She visited Africa again in 1929–30.

Delia Akeley, in 1924–25, became the first known non- African woman to cross Africa coast to coast. Her writings about her African experiences include the book Jungle Por traits (1928). Her study of baboon colonies on her second trip to Africa with Carl Akeley set a precedent among women naturalists of working with primates. She kept a pet monkey late in life.

Templar Treasure

Some revisions of Templar history focused on the rumour that Jacques de Molay organized the removal of the Templars’ treasure before his execution and arranged for it to be concealed in hollow pillars at a Templar site. The idea that treasure was hidden from Philip le Bel has also proved a tenacious motif in Templar legend, including the one localized at Rennes-le-Château. Yet another revivalist, George Frederick Johnson, who claimed to be a Scottish nobleman, suggested that the escaping Templars had fled to Scotland. The Masonic myth of the murdered architect of Solomon’s temple, Hiram the first mason, became fused with the execution of de Molay, initializing yet another strand to the legend in, for example, traditions surrounding the Apprentice pillar in Rosslyn Chapel. In Germany the Templar revival was closely linked to the occult, to stories of lost treasure and to the idea that shadowy Grand Masters who succeeded de Molay were pulling the strings in European plots to overthrow heads of state. Other suggestions linked the Templars to the disgraced Illuminati, a group of radical intellectuals based in Bohemia during the latter part of the eighteenth century, which gave the supposed conspiracy a sinister political as well as an occult dimension.

ROSSLYN CHAPEL

The secret history of Rosslyn started with a few knights who supposedly escaped before the mass arrests of the Templars in France. These knights fled in Templar ships with a vast treasure that included a secret talisman excavated while they were based at the site of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Some of these escaping Templars sought shelter with Robert the Bruce and their timely intervention at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) ensured Robert’s victory and Scotland’s independence from England. However, the grateful Scottish monarch could not support the Templars openly, since by this time the order had been suppressed. He therefore created the Order of Freemasons as a cover for the fugitive Templar Knights who had aided him in his decisive battle against the English king. A century later, the Sinclair family, who were, according to this secret history, the covert Grand Masters of the Templars and the Freemasons, built Rosslyn Chapel, supposedly to house the Templar treasure. The carvings provide a key to this secret history and to the treasure’s hiding place. Other evidence for links between Templars and Masons are found in a document known as the Kirkwall Scroll and in various gravestones scattered in churchyards throughout Scotland. Based on this alternative view of history, carvings in Rosslyn have been identified with historical figures, such as Robert the Bruce and Masonic heroes such as Hiram, King Solomon’s master-builder.

The Knights Templar

The two principal orders of knighthood of the Crusades were established prior to the launching of the first crusade in 1096 and shortly before the second crusade began in 1146. The fundamental principle on which the new orders were based was the union of monasticism and chivalry. Before this time, a man could choose to devote himself to religion and become a monk, or he could elect to become a warrior and devote himself to defending God and country. The founding of the orders of knighthood permitted the vow of religion and the vow of war to be united in a single effort to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.

The oldest of the religio-chivalric orders was the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as the Knights Hospitallers and subsequently as the Knights of Malta and the Knights of Rhodes, founded in 1048. By the middle of the twelfth century, the Hospitallers had become a powerful military factor in the East, and their membership included the most accomplished knights in Christendom. By 1153 they had become the pride of the Christians and the terror of the Saracens. Unfortunately, after a great number of victories for the cross, the moral and chivalric ideals of the order began to become corrupted by the enormous wealth that its warriors had accumulated. In 1187, the Hospitallers were almost annihilated in the disastrous battle of Tiberias, where the Saracen army under the generalship of Saladin (1137–1193), the sultan of Egypt and Syria, thoroughly defeated the Christians and reclaimed Jerusalem.

The second of the great orders of knighthood was founded in 1117 by two French knights and was originally known as the Knights of the Temple of Solomon and later as the Knights Templar or the Knights of the Red Cross. Hugues des Paiens and Geoffrey of Saint-Omer, two compassionate nobles, had observed the hardships endured by Christian travelers en route to Jerusalem and decided to serve as guides and protectors for the defenseless pilgrims. The warrior guides soon gained a reputation for their service to the helpless wayfarers; they were joined by seven other knights who admired their principles. The nine men bound themselves by the traditional vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, then added the oaths to defend the Holy Sepulcher and to protect those pilgrims who journeyed there. At first the Knights of Saint John, the Hospitallers, lent aid and encouragement to the new society of brothers. There could be no rivalry with this new order of knights who comprised only nine members and were known by others as the “Poor Soldiers of the Holy City.” It was said that Hugues and Geoffrey only had one horse between them when they first began their missions of benevolence.

Then, at the council of Troyes in 1127, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) drew up a code for the order and designed an appropriate uniform, consisting of a white tunic and mantle with a red cross on the left breast. Pope Honorius II (d. 1130) approved the following rules of conduct and discipline for the order in 1128:

• to recite vocal prayers at certain hours;

• to abstain from meat four days in the week; to cease hunting and hawking;

• to defend with their lives the mysteries of the Christian faith;

• to observe the seven sacraments of the church, the fourteen articles of faith, the creeds of the apostles and Athanasius; • to uphold the doctrines of the Two Testaments, including the interpretations of the church fathers, the unity of God and the trinity of his persons, and the virginity of Mary both before and after the birth of Jesus;

• to go beyond the seas when called to do so in defense of the cause;

• to retreat not from the foe unless outnumbered three to one.

In addition to the rules of conduct and discipline, humility was one of the first principles of membership in the Knights Templar. The helmet of the Templar must bear no crest; his beard should never be cut; his personal behavior should be that of a servant of others; and his tunic should be girt with a linen cord as a symbol that he was bound in service.

There were four classes of members in the Templars—knights, squires, servitors, and priests—each with their individual list of duties and obligations. The presiding officer of the order was called the grand master and was assisted by a lieutenant, a steward, a marshal, and a treasurer. The states of Christendom were divided into provinces, and over each was set a grand master. The grand master of Jerusalem was considered the head of the entire brotherhood, which grew in numbers, influence, and wealth to become one of the most powerful organizations in the medieval world. Counts, dukes, princes, and even kings sought to wear the red cross and white mantle of the Templar, an honor which was recognized throughout Europe.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II (d. 1143) granted the Templars an unprecedented mark of papal approval: the churches of the Templars were exempt from interdicts; their properties and revenues were free from taxation to either crown or Holy Mother Church. The Templars now had the prestige of being triumphant crusaders. They had the blessing of the pope. They had the gratitude of those whom they had protected on their pilgrimages. They had vast estates with mansions that could not be invaded by any civil officer. Thousands beseeched the order to allow them to become members of the Templars. In the course of time the Knights of the Temple became a sovereign body, pledging allegiance to no secular ruler. In spiritual matters, the pope was still recognized as supreme, but in all other matters, the grand master of Jerusalem was as independent and as wealthy as the greatest king in Europe.

What had begun as the mission of two poor knights with one horse who vowed to watch over Christian pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem had become a privileged order of opportunists bloated with wealth. And in their new quest for power and wealth, the protection of the pilgrims was often forgotten. Even St. Bernard issued a series of exhortations that the order was accepting into its membership too many knights who were but adventurers and outlaws and that a good number of the nobility who had joined the Templars were men who had been regarded as oppressors and scourges by their serfs.

There were three divisions of the Templars in the East—Jerusalem, Antioch, and Tripoli. In Europe, there were 16 provinces—France, Auvergne, Normandy, Aquitaine, Poitou, Provence, England, Germany, Upper and Lower Italy, Apulia, Sicily, Portugal, Castile, Leon, and Aragon. A majority of the Templars were French, and it was estimated by the middle of the thirteenth century that as many as 9,000 manors were held by the Templars in France.

The chief seat of the Templars had remained in Jerusalem from the origins of the order in 1118 to 1187, when it was moved to Antioch after the Christians’ defeat by Saladin in the plain of Tiberias. The Hospitallers and the Templars had been slaughtered in battle and 230 captive knights had been beheaded when they refused the Muslims’ offer to convert to the religion of the Prophet. The grand master established the Templar headquarters in Antioch for four years, then moved to Acre in 1191. A third transfer of the Templar seat was made in 1217 when the grand master moved to the Pilgrim’s Castle near Cesarea. When the Muslims captured Acre in 1291 and overthrew the Christian kingdom, the Templars had bravely fought until they were exterminated almost to the man. The surviving Templars retreated to Cyprus, which they had purchased from King Richard the Lion-Hearted (1157–1199) for 35,000 marks.

Although defeated by the soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad and driven out of the Holy Land, the Knights Templar retained their many estates and their enormous wealth in Europe. However, especially in France, the Templars were becoming diminished in popularity, and the jealousies of the government had been aroused against them. Lords, dukes, and princes were not only envious of the order’s burgeoning treasury, but they fumed over the Templars’ exemption from the burdens of taxation imposed by church and state on others. The self-righteous among the rulers and the people were indignant over the knights’ pride, arrogance, and licentiousness, and rumors began to spread that the order had acquired heretical practices during their time in the East.

In 1306, King Philip IV (1268–1314) of France, called Philip the Fair, sought refuge for himself and the royal treasury in the Templars’ massive fortress in Paris. The unruly mobs were calling for his death, and he feared that the disloyal among his nobles would loot the nation’s wealth. While Philip was in the process of entrusting the treasury of France to the Templars’ protection, he also managed to gain sight of the incredible wealth that the Knights had accumulated. When he fully comprehended that this was only a portion of their immeasurable riches and that the Templars had forts and estates throughout France, each containing its own deposit of treasure, he was awed by the enormity of their riches.

When Philip sat more securely on his throne, he began to perceive the Templars as rivals for his kingdom. The Knights had more money and power than he, the king, and they owed their allegiance only to the pope. Philip met with Pope Clement V (c. 1260–1314) to seek his counsel on how the order might be exterminated. Although the Templars had enjoyed the blessing of the papacy for decades, the pope admitted that he had been made uneasy by accusations that the order had sought to protect their own interests by securing a separate treaty with the Mulis when the Christian kingdom in the East was falling. Clement, however, was reluctant to make any kind of move against the Knights. The king pressed his case with the pope—and made an issue of the fact that the papacy at that time was located at Avignon, which was one of Philip’s territories.

Then Philip found the mysterious Esquire de Floyran, who claimed to have been a member of the Knights Templar. Floyran said that the order had deceived the church and the people for more than a hundred years. What had begun as a pious service to pilgrims and defenders of the cross against the infidels had degenerated into a monstrous blood cult. Principal among the demons they worshipped was Baphomet, the three-headed god of the Assassins, a heretical Muslim sect. Floyran swore that he had seen initiates into the order spitting upon crucifixes, participating in vile rites, even sacrificing babies to demons.

There has never been any conclusive evidence to prove whether de Floyran was a true member of the Knights Templar who had a personal grudge against the order or if he was an imposter on the king’s own payroll, but armed with the supposed insider’s sensational accounts, the backing of the highest church officials in France, and the endorsement of William of Paris, the Grand Inquisitor, King Philip demanded that the pope conduct an investigation into such charges against the Knights Templar. Whether or not Clement believed such stories, he gave his approval that a judicial inquiry be instituted, and the knights were charged with heresy and immorality.

On the night of October 13, 1307, all of the Templars’ castles in France were surrounded by large bodies of men that were led by small parties of priests and noblemen. When the unsuspecting knights were ordered to open their gates in the name of the king, they immediately complied. Taken completely by surprise, about 900 knights were arrested, and all their property and holdings in France were seized. When word of the arrests reached other countries, other nobles and priests quickly followed suit and imprisoned the Templars wherever they might be found.

The Knights Templar were accused of infidelity, Muhammadanism, atheism, heresy, invoking Satan, worshipping demons, desecration of holy objects, and uncleanness. The prosecution had difficulty proving such charges, so they were often forced to resort to torturing the prisoners to obtain confessions. In Paris, the grand master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay (1243–1314), pleaded the innocence of the order against all such charges. In spite of his personal friendship with de Molay, who was the godfather of his younger son, Philip ordered the grand master and the 140 knights imprisoned with him to be starved, tortured, and kept in filthy dungeons.

Although the pope had little problem yielding to pressure and issuing a ban on the order, he hesitated to give his sanction to the extermination of the knights. Philip, however, was determined to see the Templars destroyed and their wealth distributed to the state. For two weeks, the knights imprisoned in Paris suffered the rack, the thumbscrew, the pincers, the branding iron, and the fire. Thirty-six died under torture without speaking. The rest confessed to every charge the Inquisition had leveled against them—the worship of Baphomet, a black cat, and a serpent; the sacrifice of babies and the murders of pious knights who opposed them.

A grand council was called in Paris on May 10, 1310, to review the confessions. But Philip’s victory was sullied when 54 of the knights withdrew their confessions and appealed to government and church officials that they had been tortured. They swore that they had remained true to their vows and that they had never practiced any kind of witchcraft or Satanism. Philip silenced their pleas three days later when he ordered all 54 of the Templars burned at the stake in a field behind the alley of St. Antoine.

In 1312, the pope convened the Council of Venice to weigh the fate of the Templars. It was decided that the order should be abolished and its property confiscated, but Pope Clement chose to reserve final judgment concerning whether the knights were guilty of the heinous charges brought against them. In spite of 573 witnesses for their defense, Templars were tortured en masse, then burned at the stake. The landed possessions of the order were transferred to the Hospitallers, and their wealth was distributed to the sovereigns of various states. Everywhere in Christendom, except in Portugal, where the Templars assumed the name of the Knights of Christ, the order as an organization was suppressed.

In 1314, as he was being burned to death on a scaffold erected for the occasion in front of Notre Dame, the Knights Templar grand master, Jacques de Molay, recanted the confession that he gave under torture and proclaimed his innocence to Pope Clement V and King Philip—and he invited them to meet him at heaven’s gate. When both dignitaries died soon after de Molay’s execution, it was believed by the public at large that the grand master and the Knights Templar had been innocent of the charges of heresy.

Although the Order was officially dissolved by Papal Decree in 1312, the mystique of the Knights Templar still remains strong in the twenty-first century. There are groups claiming an association with the Templar Order around the world. Some only affirm that they are following the ideals of the Knights Templar. Others state that they can trace a historical connection with the original order.

The Militi Templi Scotia or the Scottish Knights Templar point out that the papal Order of Suppression issued in 1312 was not enforced in Scotland because the Scots believed the charges against the Knights were unproven. Under the excommunicated King, Robert the Bruce, Scotland provided a safe haven for any Knights Templar who were able to flee Europe and reach its shores. According to tradition, the Knights who sought refuge in Scotland fought side by side with Robert the Bruce to win independence from England. In turn, the king protected the Order and Temple lands in Scotland.

The Militi Templi Scotia remains active and emphasizes its historical connection to the original Order of Templar Knights. They make a point of proclaiming that they are not a secret society and have even expanded membership to include women. As with the original Order, however, all members must be professing Christians or individuals of “high ideals.”

Another group in the United Kingdom also claims a historical continuity with the original Order because of Knights Templar who managed to reach England. The Supreme Military Order of Temple of Jerusalem of England, Wales, and Scotland states that it is not a secret society and that, as with the Militi Templi Scotia, it has no affiliation with the Freemasons. The order is open only to Christians according to the website http://theknightstemplar.org. Associated with the Supreme Military Order of Temple of Jerusalem is the North American Order of Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, Knights Templar and can be found at the website http://www.knights templar.org.

Delving Deeper

Ahmed, Rollo. The Black Art. London: Arrow Books, 1966.

Baigent, Michael, and Richard Leigh. The Temple and the Lodge. New York: Arcade, 1989.

Clifton, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998.

Howarth, Stephen. The Knights Templar. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1993.

Vankin, Jonathan, and John Whalen. The Seventy Greatest Conspiracies of All Time: History’s Biggest

Mysteries, Coverups, and Cabals. New York: Citadel, 1998.

VATES

A less well known priestly class among the Celtic people are the Vates (literally, “seer”). Vates are rare on the continent and are most often found in Ireland and sometimes in Albion. They interpret sacrifices and natural phenomena to determine the will of the gods. Vates keep the great calendars, and maintain shrines in sacred groves. They have a great practical knowledge of mathematics, but refuse to apply this to worldly pursuits. Instead, they carefully study flights of birds, clouds, dreams, storms, and sticks thrown on the ground to sense divine will. To be touched by the gods is to court madness, and many Vates are not quite right as a result.

Unlike Druids, Vates (called Ovates in some Celtic dialects) do not truly fit in with Celtic society. Warriors fear what a drunken Vates might spill and are uncomfortable with their attendance at feasts. Tradition ties a Vates to his or her sacred grove, and they rarely wander from this site. Everyone likes it better this way.

The earliest Latin writers used vates to denote "prophets" and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil. Thus Ovid could describe himself as the vates of Eros (Amores 3.9).

According to the Ancient Greek writers Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Poseidonius, the vates (ουατεις) were one of three classes of Celtic priesthood, the other two being the druids and the bards. The Vates had the role of seers and performed sacrifices (in particular administering human sacrifice), under the presidence of a druid. Their role therefore corresponded to that of an Adhvaryu in Vedic religion. Celtic vates is continued by Irish fáith "prophet, seer," and ofydd in Welsh.

Classical Descriptions:

Diodorus Siculus, ¶31

The Gauls are terrifying in appearance and speak with deep, harsh voices. They speak together in few words, using riddles which leave much of the true meaning to be understood by the listener. They frequently exaggerate their claims to raise their own status and diminish another's. They are boastful, violent, and melodramatic, but very intelligent and learn quickly. They have Iyric poets called Bards, who, accompanied by instruments resembling Lyres, sing both praise and satire. They have highly-honoured philosophers and theologians [those who speak about the gods] called Druids. They also make use of seers, who are greatly respected. These seers, having great authority, use auguries and sacrifices to foresee the future. When seeking knowledlre of great importance, they use a strange and unbelievable method: they choose a person for death and stab him or her in the chest above the diaphragm. By the convulsion of the victim's limbs and spurtinp of blood, they foretell the future, trusting in this ancient method. They do not sacrifice or ask favours from the Gods without a Druid present, as they believe sacrifice should be made only by those supposedly skilled in divine communication. Not only during peacetime but also in war, the Gauls obey with great care these Druids and singing poets, both friend and enemy alike. Often when two armies have come together with swords drawn these men have stepped between the battle-lines and stopped the conflict, as if they held wild animals spell-bound. Thus even among most brutal barbarians angry passion yields to wisdom and Ares stands in awe of the Muses.

Strabo, Geography, 4.4.4

As a rule, among all the Gallic peoples three sets of men are honoured above all others: the Bards, the vates, and the Druids. The bards are singers and poets, the vates overseers of sacred rites and philosophers of nature, and the Druids, besides being natural philosophers, practice moral philosophy as well. They are considered to be the most just and therefore are entrusted with settling both private and public disputes, so that in earlier times they even arbitrated wars and could keep those intending to draw themselves up for battle from so doing and it was to these men most of all that cases involving murder had been entrusted for adjudication. And whenever there is a big yield from these cases, they believe that there will come a yield from the land too. Both these men and others aver that and the universe are imperishable, although both fire and water will at some times prevail over them.

LINK

TOMB RAIDER UNDERWORLD

Story

For generations, stories have been told of the fearsome weapon of the Norse god Thor. Legend holds that he who wields the hammer has the power to smash mountains into valleys and the strength to destroy even the gods. For more than a thousand years it has existed only as a myth…until now. In an ancient ruin on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, Lara Croft uncovers proof of the Norse underworld and the mythical hammer. As she attempts to unravel the secrets behind these myths, Lara’s perilous journey leads her toward a forgotten power that, if unleashed, could lay waste to all civilization.

Characters

Lara Crof

Lara is an adventurer, world traveller and archaeologist who seeks out relics and tombs, fuelled by an obsession to uncover the secrets of the great, ancient civilizations. She is a superb athlete, fluent in a dozen languages, and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She has been hailed both as an Archaeological Wunderkind and a glorified Treasure Hunter. There are thousands of rumors surrounding Lady Croft's exploits, invariably involving the unexplained or outright unbelievable. Lady Croft continues to be the focus of wild speculation and intense debate. Idealized and vilified in equal measure, she is perhaps one of the fascinating and enigmatic figures of our times.

Zip
Zip is the tech guy of Lara's team, responsible for providing technical and logistical support for Lara's endeavors worldwide - he's the guy in the van or the server room at Lara's mansion, and Lara's constant remote companion via radio headset. A wisecracking guy who's part ultra-techno-geek and part street savvy. He used to be over-the-top, but a few years in prison toned him down a notch and increased his resentment toward all things established. A former computer hacker, he works with Lara for the challenge and the thrill of it. He's personally loyal to Lara, and it really is the most fun he can have without getting arrested.

Alister
Alister is Lara's research assistant, providing another mind filled with arcane historical information, someone to bounce ideas off of, and provide quick additional research while Lara's in the field. He's in this to test his theories, uncover secrets noone else can, and because it's the only place his eccentric knowledge is really useful. Alister is tense and takes himself much too seriously.

Jacqueline Natla
Natla was one of the members of the triumvirate ruling the lost continent of Atlantis. However, she was later condemned for her misuse of power and was imprisoned in a capsule by the other two rulers, Qualopec and Tihocan. After escaping from her prison in 1945 during a nuclear test in Los Alamos, New Mexico, she took on the name Jacqueline and founded her own company called Natla Technologies using her scientific expertise and cunning. In 1996 she hired adventurer Lara Croft to search for Qualopec's piece of the Atlantean Scion in his Tomb located in Peru. Shortly after finding the artifact, Lara was attacked by another adventurer under orders by Natla. Knowing Natla had betrayed her, Lara went in search for the remaining two pieces in Greece and then Egypt. After obtaining the final piece, Lara was ambushed by Natla and her men. Stealing the now assembled artifact, Natla ordered Lara to be killed and left Egypt in her boat heading to Atlantis.

It is inside the Great Pyramid of Atlantis that Natla's grand scheme is revealed: to use the Scion's powers to breed a new race of mutant creatures. Realizing this, Lara made her best effort to destroy the Scion. Refusing to let her work be destroyed, Natla charged for Lara sending them both falling into a deep abyss. While Lara managed to grab a ledge, Natla continued to plummet into the lava pit below. As Lara tries to escape the pyramid Natla confronts her a final time, revealing her true appearance. After a fearsome battle, Lara defeated Natla and escaped the pyramid, leaving Natla inside when it exploded...or so Lara thought...

Enemies
Mercenaries, panthers, sharks, spiders, bats, tigers and octopus. There will also be a large number of supernatural and ancient enemies.

Locations

Mediterranean
The first level in TRU. Lara arrives at the Med in a luxury yacht after learning her father found something here shortly before he disappeared. At the bottom of the sea lies a submerged temple that hides a lot of the answers to Lara's questions.

Thailand
Lara arrives at Thailand where she explores a dense and dangerous jungle. Within this jungle is a temple dedicated to the god Shiva. This is Lara's goal...

Southern Mexico
Lara explores ancient tombs where she attempts to gain entry into the Mayan underworld...

Arctic
Lara explores the frozen islands of the Arctic Sea.

Terra Incognita Resources

“We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!” Straight from Ann Dupuis, publisher of Terra Incognita, Fudge, and the power behind Grey Ghost Press, comes today’s free adventure: “We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!” The download consists of four files:

The adventure, “We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!”;

A collection of eight intrepid Nags suitable for early 20th-century Egyptian archaeological exploits;

The GM’s map of Setna’s tomb;

and a Player’s map of the tomb.

Ann has run this adventure at numerous conventions to general acclaim. Enjoy!

via Terra Incognita Resources

Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society Website

Excitement, Adventure, and Tea at Four

Terra Incognita is a roleplaying games of exploration, intrigue, and mystery, featuring adventurer-scholars whose exploits span the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. Armed with extensive training, unpredictable technology, and unimpeachable discretion, NAGS Society Members travel to the Four Corners of the globe — exploring unknown lands, investigating mysteries, and uncovering ancient knowledge.

Terra Incognita features a customized version of Steffan O’Sullivan’s innovative Fudge system from Grey Ghost Press. You can learn more about Fudge and even download the system for free.

via Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society Website

Catalan-Estense Map, 1450-60

Catalan-Estense Map, detail: Asia, Eastern Africa, Middle East

TITLE: Catalan-Estense World Map

DATE: 1450-1460

AUTHOR: unknown

DESCRIPTION: The oldest of the portolan [nautical] charts to survive are of Italian origin, made at Genoa and Pisa; those dating from the latter half of the 14th century are mainly Catalan. But the typical Catalan map is not strictly speaking a portolan chart. It is more than that; for while the latter is essentially a sailing guide concerned with coast wise navigation, the Catalan map is really a world map built up around the portolan chart. It is true that in some cases the term 'world' connotes simply the habitable earth as known by the author, nevertheless, in others, as the Catalan-Estense map, it is interpreted to include lands not yet discovered, but only posited. This aggravated the cartographer's task very considerably for it meant that he was continually being faced with the problem of choosing between scanty and often poorly substantiated fact on the one hand, and plausible and often well-attested theory on the other. It is a tribute to the integrity of these men that their work contains so much that subsequent investigation has proved true. In fact it is this careful sifting of evidence that constitutes one of the chief merits of the Catalan school of cartography, in an age when intellectual honesty was none too common. The value of the Catalan maps, as commentaries upon the state of contemporary knowledge at once becomes apparent and we are hardly surprised to find that the Catalan Atlas of 1375 has the finest delineation of Asia the world had seen up to that time, or that, in its knowledge of Cathay [China] and the Sudan, the same map is surpassed in the Middle Ages only by the 1459 Fra Mauro map. all of approximately the same date, ca.1450. According to Kimble, there are at least three distinct influences, in addition to the portolan chart tradition, that can be detected. These influences are Classical, Christian and Arab. Of these only the Arab influence is strong, while it is improbable that the Classical influence was direct. Thus, in the case of the Catalan-Estense map, it owes nothing to the Ptolemaic tradition, and it is less likely that its author should have taken his idea of a southern continent direct from Crates, the originator of the concept (150 B.C.),

than that he should have taken it from Arab or Christian cosmographers, such as Abu'l Fida or Isidore, who revived it. The influence of the medieval Christian tradition on the Catalan-Estense map is betrayed in such elements as the legend relating to Prester John and the portrayal of the Terrestrial Paradise . There can be no mistaking the Arab influence. We have only to compare the delineation of the southern half of Africa on the map with the description given by the 11th century writer, Al-Biruni, of the shores of the Southern Ocean to be convinced of the kinship. Thus, the Catalan-Estense map, although embellished with castellated towns, ships and portraits of African princes, attempts to furnish an up-to-date picture of the world and to resolve the ancient riddle of Africa nondum cognita.

The circular Catalan-Estense map, measuring 113 cm in diameter, is very colorful with a large number of princes shown throughout Africa (where Prester John has been placed), 52 legends, castellated towns for major settlements, loxodromes, ships, mermaids, domesticated reindeer and horses. Although almost a hundred years later, it is clearly related to the pivotal Catalan Atlas of 1375. This resemblance in the content of the two maps strengthens the contention that the latter was derived from a circular prototype. The nomenclature and the numerous legends on the Catalan-Estense , mostly in Catalan with a few in corrupt Latin, are often very similar to those of the 1375 Atlas . In some instances the legends are more complete, in others they are less detailed; they suggest, therefore, not direct copying but possibly a common source. This similarity is also evident in the delineation of the main features, most of those in the 1375 Atlas are to be found on the Estense map.

The northern portions of Asia and Europe on the Estense map, which lay outside the limits of the Catalan Atlas , significantly, contain very little detail. On the southern coastline of Asia there are some differences, generally slight, between the two maps. The peninsula of India is much less pronounced on the Catalan-Estense map, and to the south is the large island of Salam or Silan [Ceylon/Sri Lanka] which also fell outside the physical limits of the Catalan Atlas . A legend refers to its wealth in rubies and other precious stones. There can be no doubt however that the two outlines are fundamentally identical. To the east is the island of Java, as on the Catalan Atlas . The island of Trapobana is much enlarged, and is placed on the southeastern margin of the map. The surrounding ocean, the Mar deles indies is filled with numerous nameless and featureless islands.

Africa occupies most of the southern half of the map. The continent ends in a great arc, conforming to the circular frame of the map, and extending eastwards to form the southern boundary of the Indian Ocean. On the west, a long narrow gulf from the circumfluent ocean almost severs this southerly projection from northern Africa. The southern interior is blank save for the legend Africa begins at the river Nile in Egypt and ends at Gutzola in the west: it includes the whole land of Barbaria, and the land in the south. This outline and legend have been interpreted to imply some knowledge of the southern extremity of Africa, and perhaps of a practicable route from the west to the Indian Ocean.

That the great western gulf reflects some knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea is more probable. The design of the northern half of the continent in general resembles that of the other Catalan charts, but the northwestern coast embodies some details of contemporary Portuguese voyages as far as C. ude [Cape Verde] and C. groso . From this evidence, the map is usually dated about 1450. Near the gulf are the Mountains of the Moon , from which five rivers flow northwards to a lake on the western Nile . This lake probably represents the area around the Upper Niger liable to inundation; Kimble has pointed out that these rivers may well represent the five main sources of the Niger. These Mountains of the Moon are stated to be on the Equator, and the streams are called the riu de lor . We may therefore assume that the headwaters of the Niger marked the approximate limit of contemporary knowledge in this region, and it is not improbable that reports of the sea to the south had been received. These may have induced the cartographer to accept the western gulf of Ptolemy, but to enlarge it considerably. Again, the name Rio del Oro [river of gold] recalls the inscription on the Catalan Atlas and the classical tradition. The portrayal of the interior thus goes back at least to 1375. Apart therefore from a small portion of the coastline, the map owes nothing to Portuguese exploration.

Some surprise has been expressed that a map of 1450 should contain relatively up-to-date details coupled with antiquated ideas in other areas, and this has produced some rather involved explanations. Taking into consideration the lack of details and names in the southern regions of Africa, we may plausibly conjecture that, as an exception to the usual conservatism, the draftsman, in Africa at least, had removed all the detail for which he had no evidence, to obtain a framework on which to insert the latest Portuguese discoveries. It must remain debatable whether the outline of the southern extremity represents some knowledge of the Cape. The outline may be entirely imposed by the frame of the map: at the most, it may reflect the kind of report that we find on Fra Mauro's map .

The merit of the Catalan cartographers lay in the skill with which they employed the best contemporary sources to modify the traditional world picture, rarely proceeding further than the evidence warranted. In the same spirit they removed from the map most of the traditional fables which had been accepted for centuries, and preferred, for example, to omit the northern and southern regions entirely, or to leave southern Africa a blank rather than to fill it with the Anthropagi and other monsters which adorn so many medieval maps. Though drawings of men and animals still figure on their works they are in the main those for which there was some contemporary, or nearly contemporary, warrant; for example, Mansa Musa , the lord of Guinea, whose pilgrimage to Mecca created a sensation in 1324, or Olub bein , the ruler of the Tatars. In this spirit of critical realism, the Catalan cartographers of the 14th century threw off the bonds of tradition, and anticipated the achievements of the Renaissance.


LOCATION: Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy

REFERENCES:
*Bagrow, L., History of Cartography, plate XLIII.
*Cardini, F., Europe 1492, p. 208 (color).
Crone, G.R., Maps and Their Makers, pp. 47-50.
*Destombes, M., Mappemondes, A.D. 1200-1500, pp. 217-221, plate XXXIII.
*George, W., Animals and Maps, pp.13, 39-43, 48-49.
*Gross, J., Mapmakers' Art, p. 45 (color)
*Kimble, G.H.T., Geography in the Middle Ages, pp. 113, 182-3, 194-197.
*Skelton, R.A., The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, pp. 113, 118-19, 127, 131, 250, plate XI