Archaeologically Speaking...

CNN has reported a very intriguing discovery this last week in England, just a stones throw from the 2012 Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth. Fifty one bodies were unearthed from a mass grave, all with their heads having been chopped off. Many of the executed men suffered multiple wounds, inflicted by a sharp-bladed weapon, to the skull, jaw and upper spine, all thought to relate to the process of decapitation . I know it sounds rather grisly but from an archeological standpoint, who they were is proving to be very interesting indeed.

Analysis of the men's teeth shows they were Vikings, executed with sharp blows to the head around a thousand years ago and some of the men show evidence of other wounds, including a cut to the pelvis, blows to the chest and stomach, and defensive injuries to the hands. They were killed during the Dark Ages, when Vikings frequently invaded the region.


Quoting David Score, project manager for Oxford Archaeology. "Any mass grave is a relatively rare find, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual and presents an incredible opportunity to learn more about what is happening in Dorset at this time."


Radiocarbon dating had already placed the remains between A.D. 890 and 1030, before the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England and further research has indicated  that these individuals came from a climate that had to be colder than Britain ... probably Sweden and Norway. Analysis of isotopes found that they ate a high protein diet, comparable to known sites in Sweden.

The leader of the Dorset County Council, Angus Campbell has said the construction of the road had already revealed prehistoric and Iron Age finds. "But we never would have dreamed of finding a Viking war grave."  "The burial pit took us all by surprise and its story gets more fascinating as the analysis goes on."

Serenity Sunday

Something very frightening was recently brought to my attention...there is/are pagans out there that are willing to speak publically that global warming is a myth. I cannot begin to express how this hurts my heart...The evidence is all around us yet there are individuals have jumped on the big business bandwagon and have chosen to denounce that Mother Earth could quite likely be in peril. I nearly wanted to hang my head in shame to hear someone "profess" to be pagan and so blatently turn a blind eye to Gaia.

We are all stewards of this big blue planet and we share the responsibility to care for it  because our very lives indeed depend upon it. Hiding our heads in the sand can only prove detrimental.
(there was originally a lot more to this post but I did not want to appear a raving lunatic)

                                             My List:

1.) My kids

2.) Recycling

3.) Great friends

4.) Truth

6.) Organic food

7.) Knowlege

8.) Stewardship

9.) Harmony

10.) Lime Jell-o

Bast, Egyptian Deity

Since I love cats so much, I figured a little research on the Egyptian goddess Bast was in order and some of what I found was very interesting.


Bast, also known as Bastet, patron of cats, women, and secrets appears as a desert cat or a woman with the head of a cat (this form possibly dates after the domestication of the Egyptian wild cat). She is described as probably the most famous Egyptian goddess after Isis and Bast was said to be the daughter of Ra though long after he created the primal gods.

She was originally a sun goddess but after contact with the Greeks, she changed to a moon goddess probably due to the Greeks associating her with Artemis. Like Artemis, Bast was a wild goddess and to those who were in her favor, she gave great blessings, but her wrath was legendary and she was sometimes listed as one of Ra's avenging deities who punished the sinful and the enemies of Egypt. This is of course in keeping with her totem animal the cat. Cats were sacred to Bast and to harm one was deemed a great transgression.

Bast's importance in the Egyptian pantheon might be due to the great value placed on the domesticated cat by the Egyptians. Cats curtailed the spread of disease by killing vermin and though the idea of microbes was unknown to the ancient Egyptians, they must have noticed the connection between rats and disease. Her worship was widespread, and her followers apparently had a great deal of power. Bubastis was even the capital of Egypt for a time during the Late Period and some pharaohs took her name in their king-names. Herodotus' description of her temple at Bubastis is that of a place of great splendor and beauty, rivaled only by the temples to Ra and Horus Worshiped widely throughout Egypt...... her center of worship was at Bubastis.

Cats have an air of mystery about them and some do not care for them as pets because of this but I have always understood them and knowing their royal history only makes me love them more!