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Archaeo - Histories

Mar 11

Mesopotamia - “the land between two rivers” gave birth to many of the world’s first great cities. The splendid city of Babylon, located between the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris some 97km south of Baghdad 🇮🇶, was one of them. Unlike the many towns that fell and disappeared, Babylon was resilient, rising from its own ashes time and again, even as new conquerors invaded and took over. The pleasure its occupiers enjoyed came at a price, however, since the highly desired Babylon would always be seen as a prize for the taking.

Babylon has resonated in Judeo-Christian culture for centuries. The books of the Old Testament recount the exile of the Jews to Babylon following the sack of Jerusalem, by whose waters they “sat down and wept.” By the time of the New Testament, the city had become a potent symbol: the corrupt earthly twin city to the pure, heavenly New Jerusalem.

Outside the biblical tradition, Babylon intrigued Greek and Roman writers, who added to the rich store of legends that have come down to the present day. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about Babylon in 5th Century BC. A number of inconsistencies in his account have led many scholars to believe that he never traveled there and that his text may be closer to hearsay than historical fact. Popular tales of Babylon’s fantastic structures, like the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens, may also be products of legends and confusion. Yet to historians and archaeologists, Babylon is a real bricks-and-mortar place at the center of the vibrant Mesopotamian culture that it dominated for so many centuries.

The site of Babylon was first identified in 1800s in what is now Iraq. Later excavations, undertaken by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey in late 19th and early 20th Centuries, established that the city had been built and rebuilt several times, most notably on a lavish scale by its king, Nebuchadrezzar II (r. 605–561 BC). Koldewey’s finds revealed an ancient locus of culture and political power. These excavations unearthed what was to become one of the most magnificent Babylonian landmarks built by Nebuchadrezzar II: the dazzling blue Ishtar Gate, now reconstructed and on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Babylon first rose to prominence in the late Bronze Age, around the beginning of 2nd millennium BC, when it was occupied by people known as the Amorites. A series of strong Amorite kings—including King Hammurabi, famous for compiling the world’s first legal code, enabled Babylon to eclipse the Sumerian capital, Ur, as the region’s most powerful city. Although Babylon declined after Hammurabi’s death, its importance as the capital of southern Mesopotamia, now known as Babylonia, would linger for millennia.

For the rest of 2nd Millennium BC, constant struggles popped up over control of Babylon. It was successively occupied by Hittites and Kassites; later, Chaldean tribesmen fought for dominance with another tribe, the Aramaeans from Syria (a tribe that had also sparred with Israel). By 1000 BC, Assyrians, who had established a powerful empire in northern Mesopotamia, gained the upper hand. But despite periods of stable rule, Babylon would always fall to someone else. Given this pattern of constant conquest—Cyrus the Great in 6th Century BC, and Alexander the Great two hundred years later—it is perhaps more helpful to see the city not as one Babylon, but as several Babylons, the product of traditions built over thousands of years.

Babylonians themselves were keenly aware of the great antiquity of their civilization. One of Nebuchadrezzar’s successors, Nabonidus, is now known to modern historians as “the archaeologist king.” A learned man, he restored region’s ancient architectural and cultural traditions, especially those from Akkadian Empire, which had dominated Mesopotamia in 3rd Millennium BC, a period that, from perspective of his own era, would have already seemed in the distant past.

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© National Geographic

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Babylon enjoyed its heyday during 7th-6th Centuries BC, when it was believed to be largest city in the world. A new dynasty founded by a tribe known as the Chaldeans had wrested control from Assyrians in early 600s BC. The second ruler of Chaldean line became notorious for both cruelty and opulence: Nebuchadrezzar II, the king who sacked Jerusalem and sent the captive Jews to the capital of his new and increasingly powerful regional empire.

A successful military man, Nebuchadrezzar used the wealth he garnered from other lands to rebuild and glorify Babylon. He completed and strengthened the city’s defenses, including digging a moat and building new city walls. Beautification projects were on the agenda as well. The grand Processional Way was paved with limestone, temples were renovated and rebuilt, and the glorious Ishtar Gate was erected. Constructed of glazed cobalt blue bricks and embellished with bulls and dragons, the city gate features an inscription, attributed to Nebuchadrezzar, that says: “I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious splendor so that people might gaze on them in wonder.”

Babylonian citizens saw their city as a paradise—the center of the world and symbol of cosmic harmony that had come into existence when its supreme divinity, the god Marduk, defeated the forces of chaos. The spread of the cult of Marduk across Mesopotamia was proof of Babylon’s prestige. No ancient city was so desired and feared, so admired and denigrated. But in the Hebrew tradition, Nebuchadrezzar was a tyrant, and Babylon a torment. The king had conquered Jerusalem in early 6th century BC and exiled Hebrews to Babylon. The Bible says that he also stole sacred objects from the Jewish temple and took them back to Babylon to place in the temple of Marduk.

To punish his disrespect, the Bible recounts in the Book of Daniel how Nebuchadrezzar’s line will fall. In the story, Belshazzar, successor to the throne, holds a feast served on the sacred vessels looted from Jerusalem. During the festivities, a ghostly hand appears, and strange writing appears on the wall, forming the mysterious words: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. The exile Daniel is brought in by the terrified king to interpret the writing on the wall. Daniel reads it as: “God has numbered the days of your kingdom ... [it] is given to the Medes and Persians.”

Daniel’s prediction did come to pass: In 539 BC, Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus the Great, and the Jews returned home from exile. The city would be conquered two centuries later by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. Although Alexander had planned to make Babylon the capital of his empire, he died before that came to pass. The great city would eventually be abandoned by his successors, and the splendors of Babylon would pass into the realm of legend.

One of the most famous stories about Babylon is that of the Tower of Babel, a story that some biblical scholars believe may be based on a mistranslation, or ingenious pun. The Book of Genesis tells how the survivors of the Great Flood wanted to build a tower that would reach the heavens, but God smites the builders for their arrogance and disperses them over the Earth, where they are forced to speak many different languages.

The story originates in a Hebrew belief that the name Babel was formed from the Hebrew word meaning confusion or mixing up (and from which the English word “babble” is derived). Ironically, this interpretation was itself a confusion of languages. In Akkadian, the root of the words Babylon and Babel does not mean to mix; it means “gateway of the gods.”

Archaeologists believe that the tower referenced in the Bible story may be the Etemenanki, a giant ziggurat in Babylon dedicated to Marduk. Its name means, suggestively, the “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth,” which dovetails with the names mentioned in the story. When it was surveyed in 1913, the Etemenanki revealed that the tower that supposedly reached right up to the heavens would have been, in reality, nearer 61 meters (200 feet) in height.

Another colorful story to come out of the ancient city is that of the fabulous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. There are many theories surrounding the gardens, from their exact location to the identities of their builders. Some suggest the gardens formed a part of the royal palace in Babylon itself, while others believe they were built in another city altogether. One origin story claims that Nebuchadrezzar had them built for his wife, Amytis.

In the course of Koldewey’s excavations of the ancient city, his team identified a mysterious structure in one corner of Babylon’s southern palace. It was made of 14 long rooms with vaulted ceilings laid out in two rows. A complex of wells and channels were found at the site. Even amid the academic atmosphere of this project, a certain willingness to believe in Babylon’s fantastic stories lingered. Was this the infrastructure that supplied the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The scholarly consensus has a rather more prosaic theory as to this structure’s role: a storehouse used for the distribution of sesame oil, grain, dates, and spices.

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Archaeo - Histories

@archeohistories

Feb 24

Slave Market in ancient Rome (1884 CE), by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) :

It depicts an Ancient Roman slave auction in progress. At the center of a high dais is a completely nude woman having been recently undressed by the slave dealer situated to her right, who is displaying her to the crowd as they bid on her. The woman shields her eyes with her right hand due to the humiliating predicament of being publicly exposed in front of such a large crowd. Another nude young woman sits fearfully at the first woman's feet, covering her breasts with her legs in a protective pose, however, this leaves her genitals exposed to the crowd. Behind her is an older clothed woman holding an infant, she is surrounded by two naked children who she is probably the mother of. Her face has a look of dread as she knows she is to be auctioned soon, most likely being separated from her children forever. Behind the auction booth, two men are keeping an account of the sales, with a row of enslaved men looking on from behind them. It is one of his six slave-market scenes set in either ancient Rome or 19th Century Istanbul that Gérôme painted during his career....

Slavery was considered normal in virtually all cultures in ancient times, and the Romans were no exception. The portion of the population that was enslaved varied across the Empire, with an estimated 15% Empire-wide. Overall, perhaps one household in seven owned slaves, but rates of ownership were much higher in Italy and Sicily. In those regions, perhaps as high as 30% were slaves during the early Empire.

Slavery was the engine that powered parts of the Roman economy and supported the elite Roman lifestyle. It was fueled by massive influxes of men, women, and children captured during Rome’s military campaigns. As the Republic and then the Empire expanded to its greatest extent under Trajan, more than a million persons from regions as distant as Judaea and Britannia lost their freedom. Each conquest pumped a fresh supply of cheap labor toward the estates, businesses, and homes of rich and average citizens alike.

With an economy so dependent on slave labor, it is no surprise that the Roman state chose to regulate the trade in slaves. The slave markets were under the administrative authority of aediles in Rome and quaestors in other locations. Sales were documented by the exchange of a witnessed bill of sale.

For the poor soul who had just been enslaved, the slave market was a rude introduction to the debasing life that awaited them. “Full disclosure” was the rule for slaves and cattle in what was usually a caveat emptor commercial world. Slaves on the auction block were displayed naked so potential buyers could thoroughly inspect before bidding. A placard was hung around the neck of each slave that revealed (from a buyer’s perspective) the positive and negative characteristics of the person for sale. The seller (mango) was required to provide correct information about the geographic origin of the slave, any known health problems, tendency to run, attempted suicides, and any other known ”defect.” The placard also had to reveal whether the slave was undischarged from noxa, i.e., had committed an offense for which the owner was responsible either to pay restitution or to hand over the slave.

Roman law provided for “return for refund” if an unreported defect was found within six months after purchase. If a slave had an undisclosed health problem, even if the seller had no way to know about it, the slave could be returned for a full refund of the purchase price.

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The number of slaves a person owned was a conspicuous measure of wealth. While the private home of an average person living in Rome might use five to twelve slaves, the urban residence of the elite might have up to five hundred performing tasks that only needed a small fraction of that total. A large agricultural estate might employ two or three thousand.

The low status of a slave was evident in the legal Latin term for one: res (a thing, an object, property). In Digest (a compilation of centuries of Roman law written in AD 533), a slave is a res mortales (mortal thing) whose injury is treated as simple damage to property.

The standard terms for farm slaves further illustrate the subhuman status of slaves. A farm implement, like a plow, was an instrumentum. The ox pulling the plow was an instrumentum semivocalis. The slave driving the ox was an instrumentum vocalis, a talking tool. Their lodging was an ergastulum (private prison), and on some estates, farm slaves might sleep and even work in chains.

But as brutal as life could be for a Roman slave, there was hope for not just freedom but a bright future. The children of a slave freed by a Roman citizen became Roman citizens with full rights themselves. Publius Helvius Pertinax, the son of a freed slave, even became emperor. In this, Roman slavery was fundamentally different from the practice in much of the world.

Slaves could be privately or publically owned. Their living conditions and opportunities were highly variable, depending on the temperament of their owner and the nature of their assigned work.

Private Slaves :

Private slaves were broadly divided into two categories: urban slaves (familia urbana) and country slaves (familia rustica). The former often had well-defined and rather limited duties, with plenty of time for going to the baths, running their own small businesses on the side, and waiting for orders in the company of other slaves. They frequently became familiar and even friends with their masters; the gift of freedom (manumission) was not uncommon during the owner’s lifetime or in his will.

The farm slaves usually served under a slave or ex-slave overseer (vilicus), who worked them from dawn until dusk, seven days a week, until they wore out and were disposed of accordingly. Unless an owner decided to free a fraction of his farm slaves in his will, servitude was usually until death.

As a general custom, a master would give his slaves a sum of money (peculium-slave’s purse) to spend as they chose. Although the peculium technically belonged to the master and he could take it back at any time, slaves were often allowed to accumulate the money and apply it toward purchasing their freedom. Urban slaves often had some free time for activities that could earn extra money. Technically, this also belonged to the master, but it was commonly treated as belonging to the slave.

Particularly talented slaves might serve as business agents for their owners. As living “things” (res mortales), slaves could not make legally binding commitments on their own. The peculium was the basis for the legal rules where a slave was an agent pledging his master’s credit in trade and contracts with third parties. The chief steward (dispensator, procurator) for many of the elite was a trusted slave or a former slave who had been freed for his excellent service.

Public Slaves :

Cities and towns often owned slaves directly and used them for public works, such as building roads, maintaining aqueducts, and cleaning and maintaining sewers and public accommodations such as latrines and public baths. The number was limited by the common practice of contracting out public services. For some crimes, the convicted person might be sentenced to a term of service on the same projects as public slaves.

Private slaves in public offices
Roman government was based on the often unpaid service of the wealthy elite. The nobleman who was elected or appointed to a government post was expected to provide his own administrative staff. These normally came from among his slaves and clients (freedmen and others who depended on the noble patron for personal favors). The practice extended even to emperors in the early Empire. Until the reign of Claudius, the close personal assistants of the emperors were almost entirely the emperor’s own slaves. Trusted slaves handled petitions coming in and instructions going out, acting as gatekeepers with exceptional power over what received the emperor’s attention. Some men chose to enslave themselves for the opportunity for such service, with the expectation that they would be freed later with the emperor as their patron and unlimited opportunities because of that.

The emperors from Claudius to Trajan employed their freedmen as their inner cabinet, men whose skills were known and whose loyalty could be trusted (except for the ones who assassinated Domitian). Hadrian changed the practice by requiring his immediate cabinet to be men of the equestrian order, but the execution of the real work under them was still the responsibility of the slaves and freedmen of the equestrians.

Even though it was officially a degradation of status, free women often married the servi Caesaris and the liberti Augusti who were the civil servants of the Empire. Many emperors valued the loyalty resulting from the hereditary service of fathers and sons. The slaves were often manumitted at the minimum age of 30 to become freedmen with all the advantages of being the client of an emperor. The fortunate ones were also awarded the “gold ring” or received a “restitution of free birth” ruling that allowed the former slave to become an equestrian if he had the required 100,000 denarii.

Penal Slaves :

For the same crimes that might send a member of the senatorial or equestrian orders into exile for a period of time, the ordinary citizen or peregrine might be sentenced to a term of service on public works projects, with or without accompanying fines or substantial loss of property.

A free man convicted of some crimes might be stripped of all property and made a permanent slave. A sentence of damnatio ad metalla sent the condemned man to work in the mines or quarries. An alternative sentence was ad gladium, which sent him to a gladiatorial training school. Both ad metallum and ad gladium were essentially death sentences after the state got some work or entertainment out of the condemned man.

A slave convicted of a crime was often executed immediately after trial by crucifixion or by being killed and eaten by beasts (damnatio ad bestias) as the morning or midday event in an area.

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Archaeo - Histories

@archeohistories

Feb 16

An amazing stone slab carving showing a woman giving birth (11, 600 years old) From Gobekli Tepe 🇹🇷 the Archaeological site of the Worlds oldest known religious structure. Predating Stonehenge by over 6000 years. Discovered by Klaus Schmidt it features Megalithic Stone Slabs arranged and Carved with Abstract Animal and Plant Designs, done by a Prehistoric/Neolithic hunter gatherer people.

The eminent pre-historian Andrew Collins has just released a book of extreme importance for posture research—Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods. The experiments with more than 80 ritual body postures used by humans to access shamanic states for at least 36,000 years should be investigated by anyone who wants to thin the veil obscuring the Göbekli Tepe shamanic cultists.

Klaus Schmidt, who has so far excavated four out of the twenty or so anticipated carved and incised circles of T-shaped stones, says they were used for rituals; they were sanctuaries. Geophysical surveys have detected many more circles, yet only about five percent have been excavated. Nearly all researchers believe these circles were sacred space. Schmidt, an archeologist with German Archeological Institute and University of Heidelberg, began his excavation in 1995. The public began hearing about this amazing site around 2000. Local inhabitants of the bleak plateau at the southern limits of the Anti-Taurus Mountains 8 miles northeast of Şanlıurfa, Turkey, refer to the “tell” or hill covering the site as Göbekli Tepe, which means “Hill of the Navel” in Turkish, or some say “Potbelly.” This name going way back in time is local ancestral memory that suggests pregnancy. The oldest carbon dates at the site are Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA) going back to 9500-8500 BC, which really got my attention.

Catastrophobia describes a series of cataclysms 13,000 to 11,500 years ago during the Younger Dryas, a mini ice age that ended abruptly 11,500 years ago. Scientific analysis of this period, in particular by science historian, D.S. Allan, and Oxford-based geologist and anthropologist, J. B. Delair, describes a cosmic disaster 11,500 years ago that disarranged the solar system and severely impacted Earth. (1) This trauma changed human consciousness, and hunter-gatherers learned to farm. Those who survived during a few thousand years more of dramatic climate change and rising seas were a multi-traumatized species afflicted with what I call catastrophobia—extreme fear of starvation and chaos. This word is catching on now that paleoanthropologists have completed an accurate picture of global migrations and settling during the last 100,000 years. (2) Ironically, at first the word didn’t get much attention because the book was released when the World Trade Towers crumbled to the ground in September 2001. Regardless, evidence for the cataclysms followed by a human cultural regression has been building since the 1950s, when Immanuel Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision sold millions of copies ripping open repressed memory. (3) Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by the cartographer Charles Hapgood inspired the eminent new-paradigm writer Graham Hancock to explore these mysterious mariners. Hancock describes a seafaring global culture that lived before 12,000 years ago on the continental shelves now inundated by rising seas. (4) This new paradigm captivated the public mind, so my publisher asked me to update Catastrophobia. This clarifying picture of the past is magnificent support for our discoveries of the postures used by shamanic cultures for 50,000 years.

© Şanlıurfa Archeology Museum

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The 2011 edition of Catastrophobia titled Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity has a whole new audience. Bored by old-paradigm Darwinian archeology that claims the human species has always advanced, young researchers hear me when I say we are a very damaged species because we were almost destroyed. Seeking what really happened to us so recently, they paint and pierce their bodies like hunter-gatherers at the end of the last ice age! Meanwhile, the recovery of our real story makes us realize people did survive radical climate changes, information that young people know they may need. Well, Göbekli Tepe goes right back to these great changes, so it is a gateway that can help us imagine who we were before we regressed. I think cosmic contact was severed 11,500 years ago. The recovery of the advanced astronomical knowledge of our ancestors is piercing the pain of human separation from the universe. Andrew Collins said to me in a recent email that he “probably didn’t fully understand the term catastrophobia until I started to piece together the motives behind the construction of Göbekli Tepe some 12,000 years ago. Then suddenly it all made sense! God, those people must have lived in fear, and without psychologists in those days, it was a matter that could only be rectified by shamans, which is exactly what I think happened.”

I’ve been thinking about the evocative circles filled with great humanoid beings for ten years. Göbekli Tepe appears to be a temple built by the survivors of the great cataclysm, a truly monumental achievement considering their probable state of mind and the amount of work to construct it. Archeologists estimate up to 500 individuals were needed to extract each pillar from nearby quarries and erect them, and there are thought to be around 200 large pillars in total at the site. Also I wondered whether the pillar of the humanoid figure with long oddly bent arms and long fingers reaching into their groins was a posture. When I was mentoring Marianne Carroll in 2011, she wondered the same thing, and we’ve been exploring it since.

Back to 1999, I was struck by exactly the same hand position on the Nevali Çori pillar, a nearby ancient cultic site. My illustrator drew this pillar for Catastrophobia from a photo taken at Nevalı Çori by Andrew Collins. I chose it to awaken ancient memory in my readers, since this beautiful place was about to be inundated by a dam. Considering the hand positions—oddly bent elbow and long fingers clutched under the belly that appears to be pregnant—anybody who knows our postures would immediately think “Birthing Posture!” Goodman says, “the pivotal, the most significant, rituals of the hunter gatherers and later of the horticulturalists, who created these figurines, centered around the celebration of birth.” She also said way back in 1990, “Some of these figures [Birthing Posture] are quite large and may well have marked the sacred places where such important rites were celebrated.”

The same hand and arm positions exist on the torsos of the Easter Island heads (Moai) statues that are relatively the same height (15 feet) as the Göbekli Tepe humanoids. In 2010, when archeologists dug down below the heads, they were resting on bodies with same odd hand position. When I saw the first photos of these unburied torsos, I was astonished to see they closely match the size, arm, and hand positions of the Nevalı Çori and Göbekli Tepe pillars..

These widely separated tall humanoids in the Birthing Posture suggest that a global shamanic culture used this posture. Goodman catalogued Bear Posture figurines that are found in virtually all pre-historic sites on both continents going back to 8,000 years ago, the sure sign of an originating culture thousands of years earlier. (11)Were survivors using the Birthing Posture for procreation, even to enhance their DNA? Think of how precious each child would have been! Andrew Collins came up with the same idea from a completely different perspective, a synchronicity that makes me think we are identifying the essential shamanic practices of post-cataclysmic cultures. Let’s look at what Collins has discovered.

Collins uses archeo-astronomy (dating the alignments of ancient sites by precession of equinoxes) to investigate the activities of the Göbekli cultists. Seeking the originating culture of this advanced site, he goes farther back to 17,000 years ago, before human culture regressed. He was the ideal researcher to do this because of his earlier studies of regional archeology in From the Ashes of Angels, and of late Paleolithic archeology in The Cygnus Mystery. In The Cygnus Mystery, Collins posits our ancestors believed life (DNA) originated in the heavens, specifically in the region of the Cygnus constellation. This is because Paleolithic sites, such as Lascaux Cave, many megalithic sites, and the Giza Plateau pyramids all have symbolism and orientations to Cygnus because its brightest star, Deneb, was the Pole Star for a few thousand years starting 18,500 years ago. Also, cosmic rays from Cygnus X-3 have impacted human evolution to be discussed in a moment. Gazing out past the Pole Star’s location by precession, many ancient cultures believed this part of the sky was a birthing region, a place of human origin. This region of the sky was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, and to the Maya as Xibalba, the great dark rift of the Milky Way. Finding these specific cosmic orientations in widely separate cultures suggests the existence of a pre-cataclysmic sky religion practiced by advanced astronomers.

Cygnus X-3 is a unique “microblazer” that spews to Earth a broad spectrum of frequencies from radio waves to gamma rays and even cosmic rays. In fact, Cygnus X-3 is one of the only accepted sources for high-energy gamma rays and cosmic rays reaching the earth. Moreover, a “growing number of scientists are considering that cosmic rays might have played a role in human evolution (my italics) causing either mutations in DNA, or even the deletion of DNA sequences . . .” Did these ancient cultures use the Birthing Posture to enhance their DNA? A US think tank went public in 2005 with its conviction that a binary system (Cygnus X-3) producing powerful jets of cosmic rays triggered a rapid acceleration in human evolution during the last ice age. You will need to study The Cygnus Mystery to consider this astonishing possibility. For my purposes in this short paper, in 2006 Collins presented clear evidence that this region of the sky inspired global cultic beliefs 17,000 years ago. With more consideration of the influence of Cygnus, Collins thinks survivors at Göbekli were multi-traumatized, yet they still managed to build this sacred temple to record their knowledge of human cosmic contact with our place of origin in the heavens. And, they carved beautiful examples of Birthing Posture to save their precious knowledge of procreation. There’s more: Pillar 18 in Enclosure D (Figure-1b) at Göbekli targets Cygnus.

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Archaeo - Histories

@archeohistories

Feb 3

In the cradle of civilization, where the Euphrates and Tigris whisper tales of forgotten empires, lies a pantheon bathed in celestial light and earthly clay. Here, Anunnaki, gods of the ancient Sumerians, dance between myths and mysteries, their story as enigmatic as the cuneiform etchings that whisper their names.

Unlike the Olympians of Greece or the mighty Norse gods, the Anunnaki are not solely beings of thunder and lightning. They are a multi-faceted tapestry woven from threads of creation, fate, and humanity's own genesis. Their name, "Anunnaki," itself reveals a divine genesis - "offspring of An," the sky god, and Ki, the Earth Mother. They are celestial royalty, yet intimately tied to the earthly realm, a duality that permeates their myths. This indicates they were believed to interact with humans when they came down to Earth. Based on ancient carvings depicting deities of ancient Mesopotamia, some had wings, wore horned caps, and had bird faces, while others held something resembling a modern-day ladies’ purse.

Imagine a primordial world, shrouded in darkness and chaos. The Anunnaki, led by the wind god Enlil, descend from the heavens. With pickaxes forged from stardust, they cleave the earth from the sky, birthing light and order. But creation demands sacrifice. From Ki's fertile clay, they fashion humans, not as servants, but as co-creators, tasked with tending the world and offering praise through elaborate rituals.

Anunnaki were a group of gods worshipped by the people of ancient Mesopotamia, including ancient Sumer. Because the word "Anunnaki" originates in ancient Sumerian language, it is written in several different ways in English today. These include Ananaki, Annunaki, and Anunnaku. Exact etymological origin of word remains subject to debate by scholars, but it is likely derived from the god An, the chief of the Sumerian gods and the ruler of the heavens in Sumerian mythology.

There were many societies in ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer was earliest, rising in about 6000 BC. Sumer consisted of many separate city-states across the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. By 2300 BC, city of Akkad dominated Sumer. But Akkad eventually faded, and by 1755 BC, Babylon ruled over Mesopotamia. Babylon fell under rule by Assyrian Empire of northern Mesopotamia in 800s BC, but in late 600s, Babylon again supplanted Assyria. Persia conquered the whole of Mesopotamia in 500s BC. While these different societies competed for power and waged war against each other, civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia believed in a common and overlapping set of deities.

People of ancient Mesopotamia, like people of ancient Greece, believed that there existed many gods. Strongest of those gods ruled over different aspects of the world. An, for example, ruled over the heavens. There, however, existed many hundred more minor deities who watched over streams, hills and forests. Rather than worshipping collective pantheon (Anunnaki), ancient Mesopotamian people preferred one deity and occasionally his partner. In this way, certain gods became patrons of certain cities. The main function of the gods, therefore, was to determine the fate of human societies.

Enki, god of wisdom and trickery, plays a pivotal role. He bestows upon humans knowledge and crafts, sparking civilization. Yet, humanity's hubris grows. Cities rise, towering towards heavens, rivaling the Anunnaki themselves. Anu, sky father, weary of earthly noise, unleashes a devastating flood. Utnapishtim, a wise man warned by Enki, survives in an ark, repopulating Earth and reminding humanity of its place.

Inanna, goddess of love and war, descends into the dark realm of Ereshkigal, her sister, seeking immortality. Each layer of the underworld strips her of power and dignity, a stark reminder of the inevitability of death even for gods. Only through cunning and intervention of Enki and Gilgamesh, the valiant king, does she return, forever marked by mortality she sought to escape.

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Sumerians lived in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Iran) between Tigris and Euphrates rivers from 4500-1750 BC. Despite being an ancient civilization, their reign was marked by a number of impressive technological advancements. For example, Sumerians invented plow, which played a huge role in helping their empire grow. They also developed cuneiform, one of earliest known systems of writing in human history. In addition, they came up with a method of keeping time, which modern people still use to this day.

According to Sumerians, they didn’t do it alone; they owed their historic breakthroughs to a group of gods called the Anunnaki. In their telling, Anunnaki mostly descended from An, a supreme deity who could control both fate of human kings and his fellow gods. According to Sumerian beliefs, Heaven and Earth were inseparable until Enlil came along. Enlil split Heaven and Earth in two and carried the Earth away whilst his father, An, carried away the sky. Though much remains unknown about Sumerians and their way of life, they left evidence of their beliefs in ancient texts, including Epic of Gilgamesh, one of oldest written stories in human history.

Babylonian cuneiform texts describe Sumerians as ancients. Despite their ancient origins, Sumerians had developed a sophisticated method of keeping time, dividing the day into hours, similar to way we count time today. They also invented cuneiform, one of earliest known systems of writing in human history. In addition, they invented plow. This played a great role in helping their empire grow.

Epic of Gilgamesh; so-called Mesopotamian Odyssey begins with five short poems in Sumerian language about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. It is known from tablets that were written during first half of 2nd Millennium BC. The poems have been entitled “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,” “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven,” “Gilgamesh and Agga of Kish,” “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld,” and “The Death of Gilgamesh.”

And if one thing is clear, it’s that Anunnaki gods were highly revered. To worship these deities, ancient Sumerians would create statues of them, dress them in clothing, give them food, and transport them to ceremonies. Millennia later, some scholars would speculate on what made these Anunnaki so special and why they were held in such high regard. But it wasn’t until 20th Century that “ancient alien” theory really took off.

Much of what we know about the Sumerian civilization comes from clues that they left behind in thousands of clay tablets. To this day, these tablets are still being researched. But one author claimed that some of texts hold an incredible revelation, Anunnaki were actually aliens.

In 1976, a scholar named Zecharia Sitchin wrote a book called The 12th Planet, which shared translations of 14 tablets related to Enki, a child of Sumerian supreme deity An. His book claimed that the Sumerians believed that Anunnaki came from a far-off planet called Nibiru. According to Sitchin, Nibiru has an elongated orbit of 3,600 years. At one point, this planet passed close by Earth. And its people, the Anunnaki, decided to make contact with our world around 500,000 years ago.

But Anunnaki sought more than just a friendly exchange. They wanted gold, which they desperately needed to repair their planet’s atmosphere. Since Anunnaki weren’t able to mine gold themselves, they decided to genetically engineer primitive humans to mine gold for them. And by time Sumerians emerged as a civilization, Anunnaki had given people ability to write, solve math problems, and plan cities, which led to future development of life as we know it. This may seem like a truly out-of-this-world claim. But Sitchin, who spent decades studying ancient Hebrew, Akkadian and Sumerian until his death at age 90 in 2010, once said that skeptics didn’t have to take his word for it.

“This is in the texts; I’m not making it up,” Sitchin told The New York Times. “[The aliens] wanted to create primitive workers from the homo erectus and give him the genes to allow him to think and use tools.”

As it turned out, The 12th Planet — and Sitchin’s other books on this topic — sold millions of copies around the world. At one point, Sitchin even joined forces with Swiss author Erich von Danniken and Russian author Immanuel Velikovsky as a triumvirate of pseudo-historians who believed that the ancient Sumerian texts were not just mythological stories. Instead, they believed that the texts were more like scientific journals of their time. And if these theorists were hypothetically correct on all counts, this would mean that the Anunnaki were not deities invented by people to explain life — but actual aliens who had landed on Earth to create life. Humans, in their telling, were made to serve alien masters who needed the Earth’s gold to sustain their civilization. And as chilling as that sounds, millions are apparently willing to entertain this theory — at least for fun.

Most mainstream academics and historians reject the ideas put forth by Sitchin and his colleagues. They often say that these theorists have either mistranslated or misunderstood the ancient Sumerian texts.

One Smithsonian writer outright panned the History Channel show that explores some of these theories, saying: “Ancient Aliens is some of the most noxious sludge in television’s bottomless chum bucket.”

Though some skeptics admit that ancient Sumerian texts may include some unusual-sounding beliefs, they think it’s mostly because they lived in a time before people had a sophisticated understanding of things like floods, astronomy, animals, and other parts of life.

Meanwhile, authors like Sitchin took the Sumerians’ texts literally and were confident in translations that they made despite the backlash. However, one thing cannot be denied — people of Sumer were advanced for their time. A clay tablet translated in 2015 shows that ancient astronomers made extremely accurate mathematical calculations for the orbit of Jupiter, a full 1,400 years before Europeans did.

Babylonians who succeeded the Sumerians may have also created trigonometry 1,000 years before ancient Greeks.

Although the Sumerian civilization collapsed thousands of years ago, they arguably laid the seeds for humanity to grow and flourish. But did they have help from an otherworldly civilization? Could the ancient Sumerians have had alien visitors who taught them advanced math and science?

Ancient alien theorists would argue yes. They would point to translations like Sitchin’s, advanced abilities of people of Sumer and fact that some ancient Sumerian texts appear to reference “flying machines” (although this could be a mistranslation).

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Jan 23

“The Sin” – a captivating and controversial painting created by Heinrich Lossow in 1880. This intriguing artwork alludes to the notorious Banquet of Chestnut, an event that still stirs debate and speculation today. Although some dismiss it as mere rumor, the banquet’s story – filled with shocking details and licentious behavior – has captured the imagination of many over the centuries.

On October 30th, 1501, former Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, supposedly hosted a decadent dinner party. The evening’s entertainment, as chronicled by Johann Burchard, featured naked courtesans crawling around amid candelabras, collecting chestnuts using only their mouths. As if that weren’t scandalous enough, prizes were given to those guests who engaged in intimate acts with the courtesans most frequently. Talk about pushing the boundaries!

Interestingly, Lossow’s painting focuses on the sexual aspect of the banquet rather than the chestnut-gathering courtesans. The exact reason for this artistic choice remains a mystery. It’s important to note that the Banquet of Chestnut’s existence is primarily supported by Burchard’s Latin diary, Liber Notarum, and its validity has been a subject of much debate.

According to Burchard, the banquet was held at Cesare’s apartments in the Palazzo Apostolico, with fifty courtesans present to entertain the guests. In his diary, he vividly describes the scene, providing the only known written account of this infamous event:

“On the evening of the last day of October 1501, Cesare Borgia arranged a feast at his chambers in the Vatican with ‘fifty honest prostitutes,’ called courtesans, who danced in the afternoon with servants and other people present, first in their clothes and then naked. After dinner, candelabra with burning candles were removed from the tables and laid on the floor, and around were scattered chestnuts, which the courtesans picked up, while Papa, Cesare, and his sister Lucretia watched. Giving prizes to those who could perform the act often with courtesans. The winners were awarded with tunics of silk, shoes, and other things.”

Despite Burchard’s detailed account, modern scholars have cast doubt on the story of the Chestnut Banquet, questioning its plausibility and pointing out that it appears only in his memoirs.

Lossow’s painting, depicting this salacious tale, caused quite the uproar when it was unveiled. The artist faced harsh criticism from both art critics and the general public, and even the Church condemned him for his brazen portrayal of such sinful activities.

In the end, the truth about the Banquet of Chestnut may never be fully revealed. But one thing is certain: Lossow’s “The Sin” continues to captivate and intrigue us, inviting us to ponder the scandalous events it so vividly portrays.

Despite the heated controversy surrounding “The Sin,” Lossow’s painting has left an indelible mark on the art world and popular culture. Its bold depiction of the alleged Banquet of Chestnut has inspired countless discussions and analyses, making it a fascinating subject for art enthusiasts, historians, and curious minds alike.

The painting has also served as a reminder of the complex and contradictory nature of the Borgia family, whose influence and power during the Italian Renaissance are well-documented. As members of the clergy, the Borgias were expected to uphold high moral standards, but tales of their excesses and debauchery have continued to fuel interest and speculation about their lives.

While “The Sin” might have been criticized for its brazen portrayal of the Chestnut Banquet, it’s important to remember that art has the power to provoke conversation and challenge prevailing attitudes. In this sense, Lossow’s work can be seen as a daring exploration of human nature, desire, and the fine line between fact and fiction.

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Over time, the painting has acquired a certain mystique, drawing attention not only for its subject matter but also for the artistic skill and talent of Heinrich Lossow. The detailed brushstrokes, the captivating use of color and light, and the intricate composition of the scene all contribute to the painting’s enduring appeal.

As we continue to marvel at “The Sin,” we are reminded of the power of art to transport us to different times and places, to shed light on the complexities of human behavior, and to ignite our imaginations. Whether the Banquet of Chestnut is a historical fact or an exaggerated tale, Lossow’s painting has undoubtedly secured its place in the annals of art history.

So, the next time you encounter “The Sin” or any other artwork that evokes strong emotions, take a moment to appreciate the artist’s ability to tell a story, spark conversation, and, in some cases, even challenge societal norms. And remember, a painting like “The Sin” is not just a snapshot of a particular event; it’s also a window into the complexities of human nature and the never-ending quest for truth.

As for the current whereabouts of “The Sin,” it’s a bit of a mystery! The painting has had a rather elusive history, and its exact location today isn’t publicly known or widely documented. It’s possible that the artwork is part of a private collection, safely tucked away from the public eye. Occasionally, art pieces like this resurface at auctions, exhibitions, or in the collections of museums, so there’s always a chance that “The Sin” might make a grand reappearance someday.

In the meantime, you can find images and reproductions of the painting online, allowing you to study and appreciate Lossow’s captivating work from the comfort of your home. And who knows? Perhaps one day, the enigmatic “The Sin” will once again be displayed for all to see, sparking fresh conversations and debates around the notorious Banquet of Chestnut and the extraordinary artistry of Heinrich Lossow.

The painting alludes to the scandalous Banquet of Chestnut, an event allegedly hosted by former Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI. The Borgia family played a prominent role in the politics and religion of the Italian Renaissance, making them a fascinating subject for artists and historians alike.

The primary source of information about the Banquet of Chestnut is the diary of Johann Burchard, a protonotary apostolic and master of ceremonies at the Vatican. Burchard’s account is the only known written evidence of the event, which has led to much debate over the banquet’s historical accuracy.

When “The Sin” was unveiled, it caused quite a stir among art critics, the public, and the Church. The painting’s explicit content and depiction of immoral acts, particularly in connection with the clergy, led to widespread condemnation of Lossow and his work. Lossow chose to depict the sexual aspect of the banquet rather than the chestnut-gathering courtesans. The reasons for this decision remain a mystery, but it has undoubtedly contributed to the painting’s notoriety and allure.

The current location of “The Sin” is unknown. It’s possible that the painting is part of a private collection, hidden from public view. Its secretive nature only adds to the painting’s mystique and intrigue. These tidbits offer a glimpse into the fascinating world of “The Sin” and the story it portrays. Lossow’s painting continues to captivate audiences with its blend of artistry, scandal, and historical mystery, ensuring its place in the annals of art history.

According to the panel for a symposium titled “The Banquet of the Chestnuts: History, Propaganda, or Legacy?” held at a prestigious university. Here is a potential scenario:

Professor Julian Kline: As an expert on the Renaissance, Professor Kline brings a balanced, evidence-based approach to the panel. He suggests that while Burchard’s account is fascinating, it’s necessary to consider the political climate of the time and the possible exaggerations that might have occurred in historical accounts.

Richard Thorn: Thorn passionately questions the Church’s moral authority, citing the Banquet of the Chestnuts as an example of its leaders’ debauchery. He presents it as evidence of the need for secular values and challenges his fellow panelists to consider the implications of such an event on the Church’s credibility.

Father Dominic O’Brien: Father O’Brien, on the other hand, represents the Church’s perspective. He acknowledges past wrongdoings but emphasizes that the actions of individuals like Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia are not representative of the Church’s teachings or of the conduct of many other Church leaders.

Dr. Isabella Rossi: Dr. Rossi, drawing upon her knowledge of the Renaissance era, provides a broader cultural context to the discussion. She argues that the event, if it occurred as described, mirrors the decadence and hedonism prevalent among the wealthy and powerful of the time.

Sarah Martin: As a high school teacher, Martin emphasizes the moral implications of the banquet. She advocates for learning from history and using past missteps as cautionary tales to instill values of responsibility and integrity.

Carlos Borgia: As a direct descendant of the Borgia family, Carlos brings a unique perspective. He shares his family’s side of the story, acknowledging their notorious reputation but also challenging the panel to consider the role of political propaganda in shaping historical accounts.

This group provides a diverse range of perspectives, and their discussions would likely offer a comprehensive understanding of the Banquet of the Chestnuts and its significance.

Moderator: Welcome, esteemed panelists. Today, let’s delve into the notorious Banquet of the Chestnuts and its depiction by Heinrich Lossow in “The Sin.” Let’s start with a key question: do you believe the event as described by Burchard actually took place? Julian, let’s start with you.

Professor Julian Kline: The historian in me is skeptical about accepting Burchard’s account wholesale. It’s very detailed and salacious, which makes it compelling, but we must remember the political context. The Borgias had many enemies, and it would not be surprising if accounts of their activities were exaggerated or even fabricated to damage their reputation.

Father Dominic O’Brien: I echo Julian’s skepticism. It’s important to remember that many in the Church, both then and now, have led lives of piety and humility. While we know that there were certainly individuals who did not uphold these virtues, such scandalous stories can often be products of political agendas rather than truthful accounts.

Richard Thorn: That seems like a convenient explanation, but we also can’t dismiss the account because it’s uncomfortable. The fact is, such accounts are part of a long history of alleged misconduct by church leaders. Could Burchard’s account be exaggerated? Possibly. But that doesn’t mean it’s entirely false.

Dr. Isabella Rossi: What we need to consider is the spirit of the times. This was the Renaissance, after all – an era of excesses and indulgence for the powerful. While we can’t ascertain if the event took place exactly as described, we can’t dismiss the possibility of such an event happening in that cultural and historical context.

Sarah Martin: Regardless of whether the event actually happened, its story serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked power and corruption. These historical accounts have their value in teaching us important lessons.

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Jan 18

For centuries, the Inuit were a nomadic people who spent their time hunting and fishing, but today they have become sedentary. There are more than 125,000 Inuit belonging to about 40 different ethnic groups living in an enormous area that includes parts of Alaska (United States), Canada, Greenland (Denmark) and Russia. Even though groups of them may be separated by huge distances, Inuit have remained remarkably homogeneous.

About 5,000 years ago, several groups of people settled on each side of the Bering Strait, which during that era was free of ice. The region attracted hunters of various origins because it offered a rich variety of fauna both on land and in the sea. It is in this region that the first traces of the Eskimos’ ancestors have been found.
A thousand years later, the ice caps of the American continent melted and hunter communities along the Bering Strait migrated southwards in America and along Arctic coast as far as Greenland. Pre-historians studying vestiges and fossils from this era use the term Eskimo to describe “hunter peoples that adapted to the coastal resources of the Arctic”. This era is divided into two major prehistoric periods and cultures: Paleo-Eskimo and Neo-Eskimo. It was the latter branch that spread out across the whole Arctic; they are the ancestors of today’s Inuit.

The word Eskimo, meaning “eater of raw meat” in the language of the Algonquin Indians, was first applied to them by French settlers in 17th Century. Today, they are described by their more local names (Yupik, Inupiat, etc.) or by the more generic term Inuit (a plural noun of which the singular is Inuk), which means “the people”, as defined by the first meeting of the ICC in Alaska in 1977.

The Inuit have learned to make do with what their difficult environment offers them: polar animals, ice, stones, etc. Their staple diet is the fat and meat of seals, rich in iron and vitamin A, which helps them withstand the cold. But above all they have adapted culturally: their clothes, snow-shoes, dog sleds, kayaks, hunting strategies etc. are all purpose-designed for the Arctic. Hunting and fishing remain the basis of the Inuit civilisation. In return, they treat Nature with great respect. Today, the confrontation with the modern world sometimes proves difficult (alcoholism, suicide…), but in general they have learned to use modern tools (Inuit-language papers and magazines, Internet, snow-scooter, aircraft) to cement their future. In Canada, the Inuit have managed their own autonomous territory, Nunavut, since 1999.

Until about 30 years ago, the Inuit depended entirely in hunting, not just for their food but also for materials to make tools, build shelters and make clothes. Their lifestyle meant they were able to draw a subsistence livelihood from their fragile natural environment without unbalancing it. In winter, the Inuit hunted marine mammals (seals, walruses and cetaceans) and in summer they moved inland from the coast hunting caribou, fishing in the rivers and lakes, snaring birds and taking their eggs, and gathering berries and herbs. The men hunted, made tools and built kayaks while the women prepared animal pelts, sewed clothes, dried meat, looked after the children, fished and gather lichen, seaweed, etc. The Inuit also left plenty of time for amusement (playing jacks and cup-and-ball, telling stories, dancing…).

📷 : An Inuit man warms his wife’s feet in Peterahwik, Greenland 🇬🇱. The photo was published in Northward Over the Great Ice, Robert Peary’s account of his 1880s and 90s expeditions. (📷© Robert E. Peary)

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Hunting marine mammals such as seals called for real teamwork so that the Inuit could spot them, follow them, kill them and cut them up. In winter, dogs would sniff out the mammals’ breathing holes in the ice pack and then the hunters would lie in wait, and as soon as a seal came up for air it was harpooned. In spring, mammals could be killed while they sunned themselves on the rocks or ice, and in summer they were hunted at sea using kayaks.
Seals were a favourite prey because their meat was so nourishing, but the Inuit also used the mammal’s waterproof skin as well as its bones. Similarly, whenever the Inuit managed to kill a whale, they used practically every part of it: the blubber was used for food and for oil to heat and light their homes, the whalebone or baleen was used to make bows for hunting, and the bones themselves were used to make sleds.

The Inuit used every part of the caribou they killed, the meat for food of course, but also the hide, which was used to make clothes, blankets, tents and kayak skins. The tough skin from the animal’s forehead was used for shoe soles and the softer skin from its belly for making leggings. A parka needed four caribou hides and a pair of pants required two more. The antlers were used to make tools, the tendons made sewing thread, and the fat was rendered to make lamp oil.

The Inuit usually lived in groups made up of several families, so during an Inuk’s lifetime, he or she might meet only a few hundred people, mostly belonging to the same mutual-support network. The bigger the network, the better the chances of individual survival. The Inuit family cell was made up of a couple, their unmarried children and sometimes the widowed mother or sister of one of the spouses. The oldest male still able to work acted as the family’s spokesman.

The second level of family organisation was a group of several families that joined together as a hunting group. Decisions at this level were made in common. The size of the hunting group depended on how much prey there was in the region, and if food became scarce the group would split into smaller units.
The Inuit used several methods to strengthen group cohesion: marriages that were arranged during childhood (and even of they didn’t actually take place, the parents of the engaged children regarded themselves as having a kinship bond); spouse exchanges; and adoption of others’ children. A child taking the name of another member of the group was thus a member of two different families.

Traditionally, Inuit parents brought up their children with kindness and patience. It was regarded as unacceptable to strike or even to reprimand a child. Experiment and imitation were regarded as the best apprenticeship, and most knowledge was transmitted orally. The most prized traits of character were generosity – which was usually rewarded – and kindness. In a society underpinned by cooperation between members, these were indispensable qualities. Any show of anger was regarded as shameful, as an impulsive gesture could threaten the very survival of the community. Social pressure was the basis of education. Any display of ill humour was ridiculed, and one of the most severe punishments for a child was to be given less affection. And in a society so dependent on cohesion, the greatest pressure on an individual was the threat of banishment from the group.

📷 : King Island Eskimo woman and child, King Island, Alaska, between 1915-1925.

Inuit have adapted both technically and culturally to their extreme environment. But over the millennia they have also undergone physiological changes. The average Inuk’s body has become stockier, his hands and feet smaller and his face is rounder and flatter than features of people living in more temperate climes. And all these characteristics reduce heat loss. It also seems that their basic metabolism is higher, and thanks to their exceptional capillarity, their blood-flow maintains an even balance between the heart and the body’s extremities. Lastly, the Inuit diet is particularly well suited to their lifestyle.

Since 1945, contact with modern world has changed the eating habits of the Inuit, increasing the proportion of carbohydrate in their diet. Nevertheless, they still value “real food” – food provided by their own environment – above all else. For two thirds of Inuit population that eat what they hunt, nearly 80% of calorie intake still comes from local resources (marine mammals). In winter ringed seal is their main source of fresh meat, but in summer their resources are more varied: they hunt migratory mammals (hooded seals, Greenland seals, narwhals, beluga, right whales) and store any surplus meat for winter, and they also derive plentiful calories from fishing (bullhead, arctic char, salmon, polar cod). Nutritionists have long wondered how the Inuit diet, very rich in animal protein, could be sustainable because the excess nitrogen generated by over-consumption of meat can lead to serious health problems caused by certain metabolic residues such as uric acid.

For the Inuit, contact with the modern world has meant an abrupt transition lasting only about 30 years. Their lifestyle today bears little resemblance to that of their grandparents. Their kayaks have been replaced by motor boats, they live in wooden houses instead of igloos made of snow or earth, they use guns instead of harpoons and travel on snow-scooters instead of dog sleds. Not only that but the Inuit live in real villages that they share with “foreigners”. Some of them have paid jobs and the rest live off welfare. This change of lifestyle has destabilised the Inuit, above all the younger generation, and a combination of frustration and depression have brought hitherto unknown social ills: alcoholism, suicide, violence, delinquency… Nevertheless, many traditions survive: a sense of “extended family”, links with Nature (including some vestiges of shamanism), the need to talk things over before making decisions, a taste for traditional Inuit activities such as sports and games, and a desire to keep on speaking the language of their ancestors.

Until 18th-19th Centuries, when first missionaries arrived in the Deep North, Inuit language was spoken but never written down. It is a so-called agglutinant language, in which ideas – represented by words – that could form a sentence are lined up after a stem-word. For example, “we really want to build a big house” is expressed as iglualuliurumatsiaqtugut, or house-big-build-want-really-we.

Inuit language is very rich in words related to Nature. For example, there are a dozen words that can be used to say snow because the characteristics of snow can vary so much according to atmospheric conditions. In fact there is no single Inuit language but numerous dialects, because groups of Inuit have always been widely spread geographically with very little communication between groups. But all dialects can be understood by all Inuit.

Even today, there is no written language common to all. The Inuit use three different alphabets: the Cyrillic alphabet in the Russian north, the “Roman” alphabet in the West, and a rather peculiar “syllabic sign” system worked out nearly a century ago by a Canadian priest. This system is now being used more and more widely.

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