Belief Systems

Ibn Baṭūṭah (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة‎, ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah), or simply Ibn Battuta (ابن بطوطة) (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369), was a Moroccan explorer of Berber descent. He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (lit. "Journey"). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Ibn Battuta is considered to be among the great travellers of all time.

"Religion als Deutungsmacht ist auch philosophisch ein herausforderndes Thema, nicht nur was die Religion, sondern auch was die Deutung und die Macht betrifft. Es reicht in noch wenig erschlossene Tiefen der menschlichen Orientierung, verlangt, philosophische und vielleicht auch theologische Glaubenssätze zurückzulassen und sich mutig neu zu orientieren. Wenn (a) Orientierung allem übrigen vorausgeht, (b) Orientierung anderer
in Deutungen besteht, die für sie übernommen werden, und wenn
wir (c) weitestgehend aus Orientierungen an anderen Orientierungen leben und uns dadurch auch in die Macht anderer begeben, ist Deutungsmacht als überlegene Kraft zur Orientierung philosophisch denkbar tief anzusetzen."

As part of the Roman religion, the prodigies represented an important role closely linked to the fear they caused to be understood as manifestations of gods with negative character. These were understood to be produced only when humans had taken any action for which they were responsible and that had angered some particular deity, must be atoned for as soon as possible based on rituals perfectly set. The Romans suffered defeats at the hands of Hannibal only understood by them as produced by the loss of the favor of the gods, and in their search to confirm there were reports of numerous miracles which were recorded by Livy.

"The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral traditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and Luritja Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia. A component of this cosmology relates to meteors, meteorites, and impact craters. This paper discusses the role of meteoritic phenomena in Arrernte and Luritja cosmology, showing not only that these groups incorporated this phenomenon in their cultural traditions, but that their oral traditions regarding the relationship between meteors, meteorites and impact structures suggests the Arrernte and Luritja understood that they are directly related.

Notice: This paper in no way supports or endorses Panspermia or any of the fringe or pseudoscientific material published by this journal or its editors."

""The impressive megalithic tombs in the northeastern Netherlands are called ‘hunebedden’, meaning ‘Giants’ graves’. These enigmatic Neolithic structures date to around 3000 BC and were built by the Funnelbeaker, or TRB, people. The current interpretation of these monuments, however, is the result of over 400 years of megalithic research, the history of which is recorded in this book.

The medieval idea that only giants could have put the huge boulders of which they were made into position was still defended in 1660. Others did not venture to explain how hunebeds could have been constructed, but ascribed them to the most ancient, normally sized inhabitants. 16th-century writings speculated that Tacitus was referring to hunebeds when he wrote about the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ in Germania.

Titia Brongersma is the first person recorded to do excavations in a hunebed, in 1685. The human bones she excavated were from normally sized men and suggested that such men, not giants, had constructed the hunebeds. Other haphazard diggings followed, but much worse was the invention of stone covered dikes which required large amounts of stone. This launched a widespread collection of erratic boulders, which included the hunebeds. Boundary stones were stolen and several hunebeds were seriously damaged or they vanished completely. Such actions were forbidden in 1734, by one of the earliest laws protecting prehistoric monuments in the world.

From the mid 18th century onwards a variety of eminent but relatively unknown researchers studied the hunebeds, including Van Lier (1760), Camper and son (1768-1808), Westendorp (1815), Lukis and Dryden (1878) and Pleyte (1877-1902). This intriguing history of ancient hunebed research ends in 1912, when the modern, systematic excavations of complete hunebeds began and continued until 1985.

In the Introduction, a brief general review is given of the present knowledge and ideas about the Hunebed Builders, who lived some 5000 years ago during the Stone Age. The book is illustrated with a large number of drawings and prints from the 16th to the 20th century. An extensive summary in German is included. A brief description of all 53 existing hunebeds and 21-24 excavated demolished ones is included in the appendices.

buy printed book, e-book or read for free @ http://www.sidestone.com/library/megalith-research-in-the-netherlands-1547-1911""

"During field work in 2005 our attention was drawn to an interesting prehistoric remain at the Malaefono organicplantation close to Salei’moa village on ’Upolu. Several stone platforms/stone heaps and remains have been reported removed due to farming activities during the last century, which indicated that the plantation area previously housed habitations. During 2006 we carried out archaeological investigations on a remaining stone platform in the area. This“star/cog” shaped platform, with eight protrusions was mapped and test excavated. The investigations showed its internal structure and its relation to other features and the surrounding landscape. The excavation also gave indications of settlement activities prior to the construction of the platform at this site. This paper presents the results of the investigationand discusses the star mound concept in general.
"

For the first time, the role of the night sky in the performance of nocturnal festivals in ancient Greece is considered. This study presents a reconstruction of the Athenian night sky as it would have been visible from the Acropolis during the celebration of the Panathenaia. A link is suggested between the timing of the festival held on the Acropolis, and the movement of the constellation of Draco, which would have been visible in the night sky during this time. This association is supported by the half-human half-snake early Athenian kings, the myths association with the festival, the snake that lived in the Erechtheion crypt, and the role of Athena in the Gigantomachy. The visible surroundings of the Athenian Acropolis that participants of the nocturnal rites would have seen offer a nuanced understanding of the relationship between Greek cosmology, astronomy, and ritual practice.

"Der Aufsatz behandelt eine auf germanischen Modellen beruhende religiöse Umwälzung in den nordostseefinnischen Kulturen. Dieser Prozess passierte, bevor das Christentum eingeführt wurde, und verdrängte den traditionellen Schamanismus, wodurch das mythologische System vollständig verändert wurde. Dieser Aufsatz konzentriert sich auf die Veränderungen in den Vorstellungssystemen und auf die Beziehungen der finnischen Götter (Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Ukko) zu den entsprechenden germanischen Göttern (Odin, Thor), wobei gezeigt wird, dass ein Vergleich dieser Traditionen gegenseitig erhellend sein kann.

This paper addresses a revolutionary conversion process in North Finnic cultures that took place under the influence of Germanic models. The process happened before Christianity was introduced. This process displaced the inherited form of ‘classic’ shamanism and the mythological system was extensively restructured. This paper concentrates on changes in conceptual modeling systems and the relationships of Finnic gods to the corresponding gods carried with the Germanic models. It shows that comparisons of these traditions can be mutually illuminating."