Atlantis Online
March 29, 2024, 01:44:00 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Underwater caves off Yucatan yield three old skeletons—remains date to 11,000 B.C.
http://www.edgarcayce.org/am/11,000b.c.yucata.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

the Hidden History of Arthur & the Holy Grail

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: the Hidden History of Arthur & the Holy Grail  (Read 638 times)
0 Members and 14 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« on: June 25, 2007, 11:38:15 am »






Dating The Sarcophagus




Received opinion says no. By comparing it with other similar objects the accepted viewpoint is that this coffin can be no older than the 10th century. However this comparison can be challenged.

It is suggested that the sarcophagus is one of a known type, dating from the 7th century and later, in which a notable person's coffin was sunk into the floor of a church with the top slab flush at or perhaps slightly above floor level. The covering slabs were carved to represent the importance or sanctity of the person thus honoured. The examples given which can be dated to the 7th century and later all have decorated top slabs. Here we have no top slab.

Another similar development had such stone coffins being set above ground, with the sides suitably decorated. These were effectively shrines and it was not necessary for these to be full length as they were basically to house relics.

The problem with comparisons is that there is not anything exactly like the Govan sarcophagus and the technique of making such stone coffins was widespread from as early as the 1st century AD. There are even pagan examples of this type of structure. The arguments for the late date of the sarcophagus are hardly definitive especially as other Scottish stone sarcophagi from Scotland all have lids. Without the Govan lid it seems impossible to guarantee that it fits in with these other types.

The decoration of the coffin itself might help to date it. Although Govan is well outside what is regarded as Pictish territory, the interlace and the animal figures on the sarcophagus are like carvings on Pictish symbol stones.

Here again the problem is that these are generally dated as being 7th century or later. Comparisons are made with Northumbrian material, forgetting the influence of Iona on Christianity throughout Europe in the Dark Ages. There also seems to be an assumption that anything new in Scotland can only be inspired from outside.

However the archaeologists Lloyd and Jennifer Laing pointed out in their book - The Picts and Scots - that there are good grounds for seeing some Pictish symbols as deriving form as early as the 3rd century. The interlink pattern on the sarcophagus is formed from a continuous line which is seen as a Christian symbol of eternity though one of the other features on the coffin are explicitly Christian.

It is all too easy to surmise that the original lid would have had a cross of some kind on it. The pattern of the interlace and the style of the linked beast on the sarcophagus are like symbols on the Class II Pictish Symbols which are considered to be Christian and Christianity seems to have existed in Scotland from at least the 5th century, if not earlier.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.


Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy