Megaliths, Tombs & Archaeoastronomy

[PINNAZ]

I thought I'd share some of the things I've been looking at over the last week.

The main structure that this thread is based on is obviously fictional. This is just some info on what it could be.

No doubt, this side-quest will be monumental!

Most of this is just wikipedia links, but if your interested I have highlighted many key words to search for. Enjoy

Here is a pretty cool website that has so much interesting stuff within it.

http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/index.htm

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The most horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience yet. Players will be deployed to Dieselpunk-stylized World War I-era France where they will encounter the return of the four original heroes from the very first Zombies map, as well as hordes of zombies that have overrun trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of a mysterious and ancient location.

Will this structure have anything to do with the Moon???

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Neolithic Era

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic

The Neolithic Era, or Period, from νέος (néos, "new") and λίθος (líthos, "stone"), or New Stone age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC, according to the ASPRO chronology in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world[1] and ending between 4,500 and 2,000 BC.

Traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age, the Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipaleolithic period and commenced with the beginning of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age). The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals.

The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era.

Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g. pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tools and ornaments, including projectile points, beads, and statuettes. But what allowed forest clearance on a large scale was the polished stone axe above all other tools. Together with the adze, fashioning wood for shelter, structures and canoes for example, this enabled them to exploit their newly-won farmland.

Neolithic peoples in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Central Asia were also accomplished builders, utilizing mud-brick to construct houses and villages. At Çatal höyük, houses were plastered and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In Europe, long houses built from wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate tombs were built for the dead. These tombs are particularly numerous in Ireland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people in the British Isles built long barrows and chamber tombs for their dead and causewayed camps, henges, flint mines and cursus monuments. It was also important to figure out ways of preserving food for future months, such as fashioning relatively airtight containers, and using substances like salt as preservatives.

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Neolithic Art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_art

In Central Europe, many Neolithic cultures, like Linearbandkeramic, Lengyel and Vinča, produced female (rarely male) and animal statues that can be called art, and elaborate pottery decoration in, for example, the Želiesovce and painted Lengyel style.

Megalithic (i.e., large stone) monuments are found in the Neolithic Era from Malta to Portugal, through France, and across southern England to most of Wales and Ireland They are also found in northern Germany and Poland, as well as in Egypt in the Sahara desert (at Nabta Playa and other sites). The best preserved of all temples and the oldest free standing structures on Earth are the Megalithic Temples of Malta. They start in the 5th millennium BC, though some authors speculate on Mesolithic roots. Because of frequent re-use, this is difficult to prove. There are many sites for rock and cave art of engraved animal and human scenes in the Saharan area. While the best-known of these is Stonehenge, where the main structures date from the early Bronze Age, such monuments have been found throughout most of Western and Northern Europe, notably at Carnac, France, at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, in Portugal, and in Wiltshire, England, the area of Stonehenge, the Avebury circle, the tombs at West Kennet, and Woodhenge.

Entrance stone with megalithic art at Newgrange, Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

The large mound tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, has its entrance marked with a massive stone carved with a complex design of spirals. The mound at nearby Knowth has large flat rocks with rock engravings on their vertical faces all around its circumference, for which various meanings have been suggested, including depictions of the local valley, and the oldest known image of the Moon. Many of these monuments were megalithic tombs, and archaeologists speculate that most have religious significance. Knowth is reputed to have approximately one third of all megalithic art in Western Europe.

Megalithic art, Knowth,Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowth

Decorated slabs from the Gavrinis passage (replica in Bougon Museum).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrinis

Possibly the same patterns shown on the ground as well as the "Origins" logo

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Cup and Ring Marks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_and_ring_marks

Large cup and ring petroglyph at the 'Laxe das Rodas', Galicia, where hundreds of stations are known.

Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found mainly in Atlantic Europe (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Portugal and Galicia (North West Spain)) and Mediterranean Europe (North West Italy, Thessalia Central Greece, Switzerland) although similar forms are also found throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, and India, where the oldest cup marks so far recorded are to be found in the Paeleolithic cave shelter site of Daraki-Chattan.

They consist of a concave depression, no more than a few centimetres across, pecked into a rock surface and often surrounded by concentric circles also etched into the stone. Sometimes a linear channel called a gutter leads out from the middle.

The decoration occurs as a petroglyph on natural boulders and outcrops and also as an element of megalithic art on purposely worked megaliths such as the slab cists of the Food Vessel culture, some stone circles and passage graves such as the clava tombs and on the capstones at Newgrange.

Typical cup and ring marks at Weetwood Moor, in the English county of Northumberland

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This next part is about the Standing stones & the mound that they stand on

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Megaliths

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalith

http://www.megalithia.com/

Megalithic structure at Atlit Yam, Israel

A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word "megalithic" describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement, as well as representing periods of prehistory characterised by such constructions. For later periods the term monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used.

The word "megalith" comes from the Ancient Greek "μέγας" (megas) meaning "great" and "λίθος" (lithos) meaning "stone." Megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock(s) hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of large stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these structures took place mainly in the Neolithic (though earlier Mesolithic examples are known) and continued into the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, is one of the world's best known megalithic structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge

I wonder if this Relates? (The Flytrap)

The most common type of megalithic construction in Europe is the portal tomb – a chamber consisting of upright stones (orthostats) with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains, but it is debatable whether use as burial sites was their primary function. Though generally known as dolmens, the correct term accepted by archaeologists is portal tomb. However many local names exist, such as anta in Galicia and Portugal, stazzone in Sardinia, hunebed in the Netherlands, Hünengrab in Germany, dysse in Denmark, and cromlech in Wales. It is assumed that most portal tombs were originally covered by earthen mounds.

The second-most-common tomb type is the passage grave. It normally consists of a square, circular, or cruciform chamber with a slabbed or corbelled roof, accessed by a long, straight passageway, with the whole structure covered by a circular mound of earth. Sometimes it is also surrounded by an external stone kerb. Prominent examples include the sites of Brú na Bóinne and Carrowmore in Ireland, Maes Howe in Orkney, and Gavrinis in France.

The third tomb type is a diverse group known as gallery graves. These are axially arranged chambers placed under elongated mounds. The Irish court tombs, British long barrows, and German Steinkisten belong to this group.

Another type of megalithic monument is the single standing stone, or menhir. Some of these are thought to have an astronomical function as a marker or foresight, and, in some areas, long and complex alignments of such stones exist, for example, at Carnac in Brittany.

Construction of a megalith grave

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Menhir

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir#In_France

A menhir (French, from Middle Breton: men, "stone" and hir, "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone. Standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were constructed during many different periods across pre-history, and they were erected as part of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe and beyond.

Some menhirs have been raised next to buildings which often have some early or current religious significance. One example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms Hotel at South Zeal, and the standing stone remains in place in the ancient snug bar at the hotel.

Where they appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers. The exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Over the centuries, they have variously been thought to have been used by Druids for human sacrifice, used as territorial markers or elements of a complex ideological system, or functioned as early calendars. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have substantial knowledge of prehistory; and their only reference points were provided by Classical literature. The developments of radiocarbon dating and tree-ring calibration have done much to further knowledge in this area.

In the Middle Ages, the standing stones were seen to have been built by the giants who inhabited the earth before the biblical flood. Many of the megaliths were destroyed or defaced by early Christians, but it is estimated that some 50,000 megaliths once stood in Northern Europe, where almost 10,000 now remain.

The Kerloas menhir, the tallest standing menhir in Brittany

Brittany stands out in the distribution of menhirs by virtue of both the density of monuments and the diversity of types. The largest surviving menhir in the world is located in Locmariaquer, Brittany, and it is known as the Grand Menhir Brisé (Great Broken Menhir). Once nearly 20 meters high, today, it lies fractured into four pieces, but it would have weighed near 330 tons when intact. It is placed third after the Thunder Stone in St. Petersburg and the Western Stone in the Western Wall as the heaviest object moved by humans without powered machinery.

Alignments of menhirs are common, the most famous being the Carnac stones in Brittany, where more than 3000 individual menhirs are arranged in four groups and arrayed in rows stretching across four kilometres. Each set is organised with the tallest stones at the western end and shorter ones at the eastern end. Some end with a semicircular cromlech, but many have since fallen or been destroyed.

The second largest concentration of menhirs in France is at the Cham des Bondons, located on high open limestone plain in the granitic Cévennes.

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Tumulus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumulus

A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgräber or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A cairn (a mound of stones built for various purposes), might also be originally a tumulus. A long barrow is a long tumulus, usually for numbers of burials.

The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, a mortuary house or a chamber tomb.

The Tumulus of St. Michel is a megalithic grave mound, located east of Carnac in Brittany, France.

It is the largest grave mound in continental Europe.

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Megalithic Monuments in France

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Megalithic_monuments_in_France

http://www.megaliths.net/france.htm

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Carnac Stones, Brittany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnac_stones

Guide to the Megaliths of Central Brittany (PDF)

The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of alignments, dolmens, tumuli and single menhirs. More than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and are the largest such collection in the world. Most of the stones are within the Breton village of Carnac, but some to the east are within La Trinité-sur-Mer. The stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC.

There are three major groups of stone rows — Ménec, Kermario and Kerlescan — which may have once formed a single group, but have been split up as stones were removed for other purposes.

Model of the Ménec alignment

Eleven converging rows of menhirs stretching for 1,165 by 100 metres (3,822 by 330 ft). There is what Alexander Thom considered to be the remains of stone circles at either end. According to the tourist office there is a "cromlech containing 71 stone blocks" at the western end and a very ruined cromlech at the eastern end. The largest stones, around 4 metres (13 ft) high, are at the wider, western end; the stones then become as small as 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in) high along the length of the alignment before growing in height again toward the extreme eastern end.

Model of the Kermario alignment

This fan-like layout recurs a little further along to the east in the Kermario (House of the Dead) alignment. It consists of 1029 stones in ten columns, about 1,300 m (4,300 ft) in length. A stone circle to the east end, where the stones are shorter, was revealed by aerial photography.

Model of the Kerlescan alignment

A smaller group of 555 stones, further to the east of the other two sites. It is composed of 13 lines with a total length of about 800 metres (2,600 ft), ranging in height from 80 cm (2 ft 7 in) to 4 m (13 ft). At the extreme west, where the stones are tallest, there is a stone circle which has 39 stones. There may also be another stone circle to the north.

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Gavrinis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrinis

Gavrinis (Breton: Gavriniz) is a small island, situated in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. It contains the Gavrinis tomb, a megalithic monument notable for its abundance of megalithic art in the European Neolithic.

The island is famous because of its important passage grave, a megalithic monument from the Neolithic period, belonging to the same broad context as the Breton megaliths of Carnac and Locmariaquer, and closely connected with the monuments at Brú na Boínne (Ireland) and Maes Howe (Orkney). At the time of its construction, c. 3500 BC, the island was still connected with the mainland. The rich internal decorations make Gavrinis one of the major treasuries of European megalithic art. The tomb is also remarkable for the care taken in its construction and its good preservation.

The chamber is reached from outside by a 14m long corridor or passage. Of the 29 orthostat slabs that form the sides of the passage, 23 are decorated with carved symbols and patterns. Some of the symbols appear to represent non-abstract objects, like axes and croziers or staffs. A common horn-like motif may symbolise cattle, a shape conventionally called the shield may be a very stylised human figure. More abstract motifs include zigzag lines, lozenges and snake-like lines.

In 1984, it was discovered that the external side of some slabs, now covered by cairn material, is also decorated, but in a different style from their internal face. This decoration must have been applied before the cairn was erected. Archaeologists suspect that at least a number of those slabs may be in secondary use, having formed part of earlier monuments elsewhere. Most strikingly, the top of the chamber's ceiling slab bore the depiction of a bull, the horns of a further animal and a motif known from other monuments that has often been interpreted as an axe (Twohig 1981) but which has also been interpreted as a representation of a whale, and thus as a "mythic animal" (Whittle 2000). Astonishingly, the slab can be joined with the ceiling stones of two other monuments, the Table des Marchands dolmen and the Er Vinglé tomb, at Locmariaquer, at a distance of 4 km (as the crow flies). The three slabs appear to have once formed a massive 14m standing stone, similar to the great broken menhir of Locmariaquer, which broke or was broken, to be reused as three ceiling slabs, its decorations deliberately obscured.

Tour of Gavrinis (20mins)

Ancient Aliens (Gavrinis @ 6mins 30)

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Archaeoastronomy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoastronomy

Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky, and what role the sky played in their cultures." It is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures. It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical astronomy, the use of historical records of heavenly events to answer astronomical problems and the history of astronomy, which uses written records to evaluate past astronomical practice.

Archaeoastronomy uses a variety of methods to uncover evidence of past practices including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics and probability, and history. Because these methods are diverse and use data from such different sources, the problem of integrating them into a coherent argument has been a long-term issue for archaeoastronomers. Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture. Other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements.

Archaeoastronomy can be applied to all cultures and all time periods. The meanings of the sky vary from culture to culture; nevertheless there are scientific methods which can be applied across cultures when examining ancient beliefs. It is perhaps the need to balance the social and scientific aspects of archaeoastronomy which led Clive Ruggles to describe it as: "...[A] field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other."

It has been proposed that Maya sites such as Uxmal

were built in accordance with astronomical alignments.

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Alignments

A common source of data for archaeoastronomy is the study of alignments. This is based on the assumption that the axis of alignment of an archaeological site is meaningfully oriented towards an astronomical target. Brown archaeoastronomers may justify this assumption through reading historical or ethnographic sources, while Green archaeoastronomers tend to prove that alignments are unlikely to be selected by chance, usually by demonstrating common patterns of alignment at multiple sites.

Le Grand Menhir Brisé

http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/francelegrandmenhir.htm

This stone has the honour of having once been the largest (known) standing stone in Europe and the largest of a huge 19-stone alignment. Today the menhir is broken into four pieces which still lie where they fell.

Le Grand menhir lies alongside La Table des Marchands passage-mound, and the Er-Grah tumulus, both built at around 3,300 BC, following the destruction of the original alignment, which is now suspected of having been broken up and distributed around the Morbihan area. The original construction (of which Le Grand Menhir was only a component) was one of Europe's greatest megalithic achievements.

The site was suggested by Prof. A. Thom to have served as a lunar marker, from which it would have been able to calculate the 18.6yr lunar cycle by observing the stone from positions in the surrounding countryside. He predicted the locations of the sites and found ancient markers at several of them, confirming his hypothesis.

Prof. Alexander Thom concluded that it was a huge foresight marker for the moon's rising and setting extremes. He made predictions for the directions of eight observing points, of which six have been shown to still have evidence of prehistoric mounds or stones, one of which is ten miles distant.

Lunar orientations

The orientation of sites to the solar cycle has been generally determined to have been preceded by a preference for lunar orientation at several important sites such as Stonehenge and Carnac for example, both of which show a transfer of orientation from lunar to solar at around 3,100 BC. It is now known that several of the megaliths in the Carnac region were re-used from earlier constructions which Alexander Thom demonstrated were originally lunar. A particularly good example of this is the Lochmariaquer complex at which one large menhirs from an original alignment of 19 stones, is now understood to have been broken and re-used as capstones for the Er-Grah, Table des Marchands and Gavr'inis passage mounds - all of which were orientated to points of the solar-cycle.

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Fajada Butte - Sun Dagger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajada_Butte

http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/mexicochaco.htm

In 1977 the artist Anna Sofaer visited Chaco Canyon as a volunteer recording rock art. There she recorded petroglyphs on Fajada Butte at what is now called the Sun Dagger site, now perhaps the most famous site in Chaco Canyon, located at a southeastern facing cliff near the top of Fajada Butte. She noted three large stone slabs leaning against the cliff which channel light and shadow markings onto two spiral petroglyphs on the cliff wall. On her second visit she saw a "dagger of light" bisecting one of the spirals. At about 11:15 AM. on the summer solstice a dagger-shaped light form pierces the larger of the two spirals. Similar sun daggers mark the winter solstice and equinoxes.

http://www.spirasolaris.ca/sbb4g1.html

At one extreme in the moon’s eighteen- to nineteen-year cycle (the lunar minor standstill), a shadow bisects the larger spiral just as the moon rises; and at its other extreme, nine-and-a-half years later (the lunar major standstill), the shadow of the rising moon falls on the left edge of the larger spiral.

In each case these shadows align with pecked grooves. Due to the slabs settling, the "dagger of light" does not cross through the center of the spiral anymore during the summer solstice.

Diagram showing the location of the sun daggers on the petroglyph on various days

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http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/leylines.htm

After the 1914-18 world war, Major F.A. Menzies, M.C., a distinguished British army engineer and surveyor, decided to live in France where he chose to investigate the energies of the earth. Major Menzies was very interested in the study of radiesthesia and while in France he was tutored by M. Bovis and other leading French exponents of radiesthesia. During this time Major Menzies became aware of the importance of the Feng Shui system of geomancy which had been developed by the ancient Chinese geomancers. He was able to see examples of the Chinese geomancers compass in certain museums in Paris, which had been brought from China by Jesuit missionaries. Major Menzies made drawings of one of these amazing compasses and eventually constructed a modified version for his own use. By learning how to use the Chinese geomancers compass in conjunction with his British army compass, Major Menzies became very proficient in locating earth energy alignments (ley-lines), and also sources of noxious energy which were creating areas of geopathic stress and ill health.

Eventually, Major Menzies returned to England where, during the 1940's, he carried out research work, using both his compasses, at the ancient megalithic site of Stanton Drew, six miles south of Bristol in the south west of England. Stanton Drew is comprised of several megalithic stone circles which are said to possibly date back to 3,000 B.C. They show several astronomical alignments and are believed to have been associated with solar (fire) worship in Pagan times. While investigating these stone circles, Major Menzies had an extraordinary experience which he subsequently related to a friend and fellow surveyor, George Sandwith. Major Menzies said:

“Although the weather was dull there was no sign of a storm. Just at a moment when I was re-checking a bearing on one of the stones in that group, it was as if a powerful flash of lightning hit the stone, so the whole group was flood-lit, making them glow like molten gold in a furnace. Rooted to the spot - unable to move - I became profoundly awestruck, as dazzling radiations from above, caused the whole group of stones to pulsate with energy in a way that was terrifying. Before my eyes, it seemed the stones were enveloped in a moving pillar of fire - radiating light without heat - writhing upwards towards the heavens: on the other hand it was descending in a vivid spiral effect of various shades of colour - earthward. In fact the moving, flaring lights gyrating around the stones had joined the heavens with the earth"

Major Menzies' experience at Stanton Drew may have a direct bearing on the “fire-pillars” of ancient Phoenician tradition and elsewhere. To re-quote Rev. J.A. Wylie: “Altein is a name given to certain stones or rocks found in many districts of Scotland, and which are remarkable for their great size, and the reverence in which they are held by the populace, from the tradition that they played an important part in the mysteries transacted in former days. Altein is a compound word - al, a stone, and teine, fire, and so it signifies 'the stone of fire'….These 'stones of fire' form a connecting link between the early Caledonia and the ancient Phoenicia….The fire-pillars that blazed at the foot of Lebanon burned in honour of the same gods as those that lighted up the straths of Caledonia. Ezekiel speaks of the 'stones of fire' of Tyre, and his description enables us to trace the same ceremonies at the Phoenician alteins as we find enacted at the Scottish ones.”

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Off Topic stuff that may have some use. I'm probably way off the mark here. (Too complicated to explain how this may tie in)

Elder Futhark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Futhark

The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic tribes for the northwestern and Migration period Germanic dialects. Its inscriptions are found on artifacts (including jewelry, amulets, tools, weapons, and runestones) from the 2nd to 8th centuries.

In Scandinavia, from the late 8th century, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians extended the Futhark which eventually became the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon and Younger Futharks, which remained in use during the Early and High Middle Ages, respectively, knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten until 1865, when Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge deciphered it.

The Elder Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names: F, U, Th, A, R and K) consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three groups of eight runes called an ætt. In the following table, each rune is given with its common transliteration:

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Younger Futhark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Futhark

The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" which lasted during the 7th and 8th centuries. The reduction, somewhat paradoxically, happened at the same time as phonetic changes led to a greater number of different phonemes in the spoken language, when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. Thus, the language included distinct sounds and minimal pairs which were not separate in writing.

The Younger Futhark is divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes, in the 10th century further expanded by the "Hälsinge Runes" or staveless runes. The lifetime of the Younger Futhark corresponds roughly to the Viking Age. Their use declined after the Christianization of Scandinavia; most writing in Scandinavia from the 12th century was in the Latin alphabet, but the runic scripts survived in marginal use, in the form of the Medieval runes (in use ca. 1100–1500) and the Latinised Dalecarlian runes (ca. 1500–1910).

The Younger Futhark: Danish long-branch runes and Swedish/Norwegian short-twig runes.

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Jacob Grimm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Grimm

Grimm's Fairy Tales book found in Buried

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863) was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law (linguistics), the author (with his brother) of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

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Teutonic Mythology / Deutsche Mythologie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mythologie

Deutsche Mythologie (Teutonic Mythology) is a seminal treatise on Germanic mythology by Jacob Grimm. First published in Germany in 1835, the work is an exhaustive treatment of the subject, tracing the mythology and beliefs of the Ancient Germanic peoples from their earliest attestations to their survivals in modern traditions, folktales and popular expressions.

The structure of the Deutsche Mythologie is fairly encyclopaedic. The articles and chapters are discursive of philological, historical, folkloristic, and poetic aspects of the pre-Christian Germanic religions. The sources are varied epochally and geographically. In many instances, Grimm cites the North and West Germanic variants of a religious entity; thus the entry on Thor is titled 'Donar, Thunar (Thôrr)'. Older Germanic words, particularly those concerning ritual, are often compared to Latin equivalents, as evident in the table of contents.

Many variations in either original scanned or PDF format

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL45439W/Deutsche_mythologie

AN OVERVIEW of the GERMANIC MYTHOLOGY'S EPIC ORDER

http://www.germanicmythology.com/ugm2/ugm2overview.pdf

Chapters

> Ch. 1 - Introduction

> Ch. 2 - God

> Ch. 3 - Worship

> Ch. 4 - Temples

> Ch. 5 - Priests

> Ch. 6 - Gods

> Ch. 7 - Wuotan, Wodan (Oðinn)

> Ch. 8 - Donar, Thunar, (Thorr)

> Ch. 9 - Zio, (Tiw, Tyr)

> Ch. 10 - Fro (Freyr)

> Ch. 11 - Palter (Balder)

> Ch. 12 - Other Gods

> Ch. 13 - Goddesses

> Ch. 14 - Condition of Gods

> Ch. 15 - Heroes

> Ch. 16 - Wise Women

> Ch. 17 - Wights and Elves

> Ch. 18 - Giants

> Ch. 19 - Creation

> Ch. 20 - Elements

> Ch. 21 - Trees and Animals

> Ch. 22 - Sky and Stars

> Ch. 23 - Day and Night

> Ch. 24 - Summer and Winter

> Ch. 25 - Time and World

> Ch. 26 - Souls

> Ch. 27 - Death

> Ch. 28 - Destiny and Well-Being

> Ch. 29 - Personifications

> Preface

> Ch.30 - Poetry

> Ch. 31 - Spectres

> Ch. 32 - Translation

> Ch. 33 - Devil

> Ch. 34 - Magic

> Ch. 35 - Superstition

> Ch. 36 - Sickness

> Ch. 37 - Herbs and Stones

> Ch. 38 - Spells and Charms

========================================

ASGARD - VALHALLA?

Yggdrasil

[Rookie]

Nice research and find dude, i mean the circular markings and the markings on the ORIGINS logo are quite identical, too much of a coincident to be ignored. Also, to be honest i didnt understand about the pillars too much but from what i did understand , you could be onto something! Awesome research dude!

[yourmapper]

Great research and summary, especially about finding out the inspiration/source of the megalith patterns from the Origins logo and sacred site!

Here are the 4 best pics of the sacred site from the trailer:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s244/sh/ ... 3%20PM.png

[BriggzyJ97]

Nice research,

To me the Origins megaliths look too "perfect", like they were engineered for a specific reason. Perhaps by a more advanced being, *wink**wink*

[Jolteon]

Step aside AlphaSnake, it's the time of PINNAZ!!!!!

Seriously good work man; you truly are one of the best.

-Jolteon

[InfestLithium]

I've been awaiting this from our constant tweets to one another regarding the megaliths and ancient ruins. Now that we have a pretty concrete locations for these areas, it comes time to find out its significance. You stated that some of these stones were very much used for religious practices, and the etchings ("alien markings") help give a little more insight in the importance of these artifacts. What would you say could be a possible reason why we deal with these?

+1 and beyond, friendo. :)

[way2g00d]

Splendid job with the research PINNAZ.

Also could this be our maps possible location

Gavrinis (Breton: Gavriniz) is a small island, situated in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. It contains the Gavrinis tomb, a megalithic monument notable for its abundance of megalithic art in the European Neolithic.

The island is famous because of its important passage grave, a megalithic monument from the Neolithic period, belonging to the same broad context as the Breton megaliths of Carnac and Locmariaquer, and closely connected with the monuments at Brú na Boínne (Ireland) and Maes Howe (Orkney). At the time of its construction, c. 3500 BC, the island was still connected with the mainland. The rich internal decorations make Gavrinis one of the major treasuries of European megalithic art. The tomb is also remarkable for the care taken in its construction and its good preservation.

[PINNAZ]

Thanks guys.

I added & updated some things.

- Archaeoastronomy

- Alignments

- The Sun Dagger

I also found this. This is awesome.

“Although the weather was dull there was no sign of a storm. Just at a moment when I was re-checking a bearing on one of the stones in that group, it was as if a powerful flash of lightning hit the stone, so the whole group was flood-lit, making them glow like molten gold in a furnace. Rooted to the spot - unable to move - I became profoundly awestruck, as dazzling radiations from above, caused the whole group of stones to pulsate with energy in a way that was terrifying. Before my eyes, it seemed the stones were enveloped in a moving pillar of fire - radiating light without heat - writhing upwards towards the heavens: on the other hand it was descending in a vivid spiral effect of various shades of colour - earthward. In fact the moving, flaring lights gyrating around the stones had joined the heavens with the earth"

(I hope I'm not too far off the mark with all this? Probably...)

[Rookie]

Thanks guys.

I added & updated some things.

- Archaeoastronomy

- Alignments

- The Sun Dagger

I also found this. This is awesome.

“Although the weather was dull there was no sign of a storm. Just at a moment when I was re-checking a bearing on one of the stones in that group, it was as if a powerful flash of lightning hit the stone, so the whole group was flood-lit, making them glow like molten gold in a furnace. Rooted to the spot - unable to move - I became profoundly awestruck, as dazzling radiations from above, caused the whole group of stones to pulsate with energy in a way that was terrifying. Before my eyes, it seemed the stones were enveloped in a moving pillar of fire - radiating light without heat - writhing upwards towards the heavens: on the other hand it was descending in a vivid spiral effect of various shades of colour - earthward. In fact the moving, flaring lights gyrating around the stones had joined the heavens with the earth"

(I hope I'm not too far off the mark with all this? Probably...)

So correct me if i am wrong, are you saying that the weather was changed by the lightening hitting the stone. I am sorry if i sound stupid but i am really confused

But dont let my confused self from letting you know that sir, you are EPIC!

[PINNAZ]

@ Rookie - read the spoiler tab named "my favorite part". He's saying that there was lightning even though there wasn't a storm.

& Cheers. Someones got to write some wacked out threads.

Gotta have some fun, everyone's so serious.

[MixMasterNut]

This is an Asylum worth thread, IMO.

You were on the money about the Monoliths and Standing stones in France. Everyone should keep in mind PINNAZ pieced this together before the cinematic intro trailer was revealed





My questions now are, what were the Knights of Templar originally doing at this site? We're they searching for the Holy Grail or similar holy artifact? It appears things went wrong and the knights became cursed with imprisonment and undeath.

Do I sense another Indiana Jones influence in the game? This all seems somewhat familiar...

- Mix

[PINNAZ]

Thanks Mix. It makes me womder what artifacts we will find here.

The Gavrinis Patterns are meant to be lunar indications of moon cycles (among other things)
If the patterns in the game are based of these, i would nearly say that the Side-quest would have something to do with the MOON!!!
 

I did a small update & added these 2 videos.
(you have to watch the Ancient Alien video, absolute classic!)

 

Tour of Gavrinis (20mins)

Ancient Aliens (Gavrinis @ 6:30)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbOBiB-y3O4 Edited March 7, 2014 by Hells Warrrior
Fixed the video links broken after the upgrade.

[MixMasterNut]

Thanks for sharing these videos. After watching them, I'm even more confident that you've pin-pointed the references used in this map.
 

Tour of Gavrinis (20mins)

Did you catch @ 16:34...

"This is where the Knights [of] Templar went in"

- Mix

Edited March 7, 2014 by Hells Warrrior
Fixed the video link, broken after the upgrade.

[PINNAZ]

Haha, I'm glad there is someone else as interested in this as much as me.

Here we have a Mound passage tomb, that has similar patterns, the patterns may reference the moon & this is tomb is located in France! Quite a coincidence.

"This is where the Knights [of] Templar went in"

- Mix

I wasn't to sure what to make of that. Was he joking or has this some type of truth? I couldn't believe that he said "this is we're the Knights Templars went in" WOW!

EDIT - some interesting info in this document.

http://www.catshaman.com/261mon/0carnac.htm

These eighteen kens maybe are symbols for a lunar year and we know that 18,61 moons is the Saros cycle when the nodes reaches exact same point-, i.e. they knew about eclipses

The alignments and the underground graves associate to the moon and following the behaviour that mean practical astronomy. Season feast connected the moon calendar to the year. The big festival was in spring and autumn but maybe they celebrated new moon with libation to the water idol and another at wane moon for the fertility in soil symbolised by the axe, i.e. in other places one of the edges of the double axe.

The temple was centre not only for the rituals in the lunations we know a little of from the Roman rituals. The funeral rituals were the same since resurrection was the idea of both human afterlife and vegetative resurrection.

Gavrinis at Carnac and Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth at Ireland are rather moon temples than passage graves. I suppose they practised the first step-down-ritual in these temples. After that it spread to local combines graves and temples since the thought was the same about resurrection of seed and mankind.

[MixMasterNut]

I just found this...

Voices Out of Stone - Magic and Mystery in Megalithic Brittany

http://books.google.com/books?id=RbpdmL5x9icC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1844091953&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Y68XUuvhO6H6iwK2zoHQBw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The only building on this tiny island [Gavrinis] is a privately owned farmhouse, near the site of a former monastic refuge for the Knights Templar.

- Mix

[way2g00d]

This thread Epitomizes everything CoDz. Nuff said.

[KingKiyani]

Pinnaz is my hero. Pretty excellent thread.

So awesome seeing Treyarch incorporate all these esoteric related artifacts and monuments and so on in the map.

[Scoldon]

This is an excellent thread, as all of your threads are, PINNAZ.

[PINNAZ]

Well my idea that the patterns had something to do with the moon didn't really eventuate, but the hint in Buried with The book "Grimms Fairy Tales" (which lead me to the Megaliths aswell) sure was worth researching.

Researching Jacob Grimm took me from the true meaning of the "Black Sun Symbol" (= the Sun Wheel), right back through to Norse Mythology. And along the way I also came across "The Futhark".

Not only are the Giants named after Norse Gods - Odin, Thor & Freya, if you go into the Giants using Zombie Blood you will see Futhark writing which tells you which staff to put into each Giant. (Props to Silver_is_Pro for showing me this)

This writing says WIND

The 'F' symbol is also shown on the rewards box.

Though I included a small section of this in my original post, I thought I was way off the mark. I love it when you look into some small hints in Zombies & it is actually incorporated in the next map!

[AlphaSnake]

This is an Asylum worth thread, IMO.

You were on the money about the Monoliths and Standing stones in France. Everyone should keep in mind PINNAZ pieced this together before the cinematic intro trailer was revealed

My questions now are, what were the Knights of Templar originally doing at this site? We're they searching for the Holy Grail or similar holy artifact? It appears things went wrong and the knights became cursed with imprisonment and undeath.

Do I sense another Indiana Jones influence in the game? This all seems somewhat familiar...

WtcZv89Hspk

- Mix

 

Indeed, what is it that they found?

 

Where did they find it?

 

Teutonic Knights,Templar Knights & lets not forget the others that are not quite Human.

 

The secrecy around the powerful medieval Order of the Knights Templar, and the speed with which they disappeared over the space of a few years, has led to Knights Templar legends. These range from rumors about their association with the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, to questions about their association with the Freemasons, to searches for a lost treasure. Speculation about the Templars has increased because of references to them in bestselling books such as The Da Vinci Code and films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and National Treasure.

 

Ah, the Illuminati shit once again.

 

So what did they find?

 

Secret hidden occult knowledge of eastern origins.

 

The keys to control & power. Some may say enlightenment or Illuminated.

 

The very mantra of the Freemasons.

 

Where are we going from here Mix?

 

You know who I'm taking about, its our pal Aleister Crowley once again.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jis-Vk1GlGI

 

Do as thou wilt. (Brains for the pop culture Rap stars name )

 

The power of GOD, Guns, Oil & Drugs all under the umbrella of the Illuminated Luciferian/Satanic Freemasons.

 

Like I've said before, did the crusades ever actually stop?

 

This mound in france is like the nobility of that time trying to recreate the Temple mound to house the artifact they stole away from Jerusalem.

 

Also just to add a little crazyness as always get this.

 

Zombie blood. The consumption of blood by bathing in it is nothing new to the satanic cults & cannibals alike. (The flesh anyone?)

 

I was watching fear & loathing in Las Vegas the other night, the part where Depp takes Adrenal gland extracts from a human bought from a satanist.

 

Depp takes to much & goes into a wild feverish trip where his friend start to turn into a red devilish looking demon.

 

His friend mentions that the satanic dealer was also pushing Human blood to get higher that they had ever been.

 

The reason its like a drug is quite simple.

 

Blood is filled with hormones, the body produces many of its own drugs such as DMT when you dream or Endorphins ("endogenous morphine") when you say eat chocolate.

 

Satanist know that if a victim is fearful before blood letting then the blood will contain the fear hormones like Cortisol, Adrenaline etc, etc...

 

Thanks for making us research this stuff Treyarch...

 

use of the term Satanism has nothing to do with the Christian version of Satan. I use it only to describe a system of ritual sacrifice and torture which, staggering as it may seem to most people, is commonplace all over the world today. Satanism is just another name for the worship of a highly destructive, negative force which has been given endless names over the centuries: Nimrod, Baal, Moloch or Molech, Set, the Devil, Lucifer, there is no end to them.

 

Satanism perverts everything positive in the same way that the Nazis took a positive symbol, the swastika, and turned it around to symbolize the negative. This is why the Satanists invert the pentagram and why they use black to symbolize the darkness, hence their Black Mass. But they also reverse the symbolism of white and that is a powerfully negative colour to them. The Satanic networks, under the names of their various deities, were created by the Babylonian Brotherhood to serve their needs. We have seen that the accounts of the Watchers and their offspring, the Nefilim, include references to their blood drinking activities.

 

This is my point.

 

Origins is actually quite well tied to Tranzit.

 

Anyways last point:

 

Has anyone seen Cabin in the woods???

 

Working from a hidden underground facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley initiate plans for a mysterious ritual – reportedly one of several others taking place around the world. Also present is specialist Wendy Lin, who discloses that a similar operation undertaken by their Swedish counterparts has just ended in failure.

 

Meanwhile, American college students Dana Polk, Holden McCrea, Marty Mikalski, Jules Louden, and Curt Vaughan are spending their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest. It soon becomes clear that Sitterson and Hadley are manipulating this setting from afar, even intoxicating the teenagers with psychotropic drugs that gradually hinder rational thinking while increasing libido. After the door to the cabin's darkened cellar swings open on its own during a tipsy game of Truth or Dare, for example, both technicians coerce their charges into investigating the contents within.

 

The group soon uncovers a plentiful assortment of bizarre articles, including an old diary once maintained by Patience Buckner, onetime cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana, who takes an interest in Patience, subsequently recites incantations from the journal and inadvertently summons the zombified Buckner clan. Leaving Dana, Holden, and Marty behind with the book, Curt and Jules retire outside – where Hadley successfully induces them to have sex. Set upon by marauding Buckners, Jules is decapitated but Curt escapes, sounding the alarm. Marty, a frequent marijuana smoker, becomes justifiably paranoid, declaring that unseen figureheads have been toying with their crisis. Locating concealed surveillance equipment, he theorizes that the predicament may be a gimmick for reality television before being dragged off to be killed by Judah Buckner.

 

Terrified, Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt escape in their RV, though Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse, rendering the highway impassable. Curt jumps a ravine on his motorcycle in a desperate bid to reach an adjoining road, but is killed crashing into a camouflaged force shield - apparently erected by the technicians. His demise convinces Dana that Marty's concerns may have been founded.

 

Veering off the tarmac, the RV plummets into a nearby lake after Father Buckner surfaces inside and stabs Holden. Dana survives the impact, but is confronted by Matthew Buckner when she swims ashore. As he delivers his final blow, the Facility staff celebrate the completion of their ritual. Sitterson receives a phone call informing him that Marty is still alive. Rescuing Dana, Marty reveals that he was able to overpower his assailant upon being taken into an obscured elevator. They infiltrate the Facility, where a menagerie of monsters are imprisoned. Dana observes a cenobite-like creature clutching a globe she observed in the cabin's cellar, indicating that the items there dictate which monster will be unleashed on its concurrent occupants. She and Marty are cornered by a private security team, but before they can be captured, manage to release the monsters, which run rampant throughout and slaughter the Facility's staff, including Hadley. Sitterson escapes, only to be inadvertently stabbed by Dana in the lower levels of the building.

 

Upon entering an underground temple, the two survivors meet the project Director who explains that every year worldwide rituals commence to appease malevolent beings identified only as "Ancient Ones" living beneath the Facility, they are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual pars pro toto sacrifice of five young people embodying certain archetypes: the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). The order in which intended victims perish is flexible, as long as the Whore is first and the Virgin is last (or optionally survives, so long as the others die). The Director urges Dana to shoot Marty, completing the ritual, but they are interrupted by a werewolf which Marty fends off after it attacked Dana. Patience Buckner arrives, killing the Director, and Marty pushes them into a chasm.

 

Dana and Marty accept that it might be better for another species to take humanity's place if this is the price of its continued existence. They share a final joint as an Ancient One finally stirs, destroying the Facility.

 

The seal of the Ancient ones...

 

See the ending here:

 

 

Giant evil gods, just to get you interested.

 

Right I'm done for now.

 

Good thread.

 

Even if it makes me feel as crazy as a box of frogs. These ideas are like herding cats.

 

Regards Alpha.

[GRILL]

Not sure why this hasn't been pinned yet, but by god @PINNAZ you are just a legend.  It's like - the more I peer back into these older threads, the more I'm realizing that these are treasures and provide wealths of information.