DeDanaan

Heaven : In most religions and mythologies there is a place to which it is believed the souls, or even the bodies, of the deserving go after death. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all picture heaven as the abode of God, where all worthy souls find eternal peace. In ancient pagan Greek religion the gods took dead heroes to the Elysian Fields in the distant west at the edge of the world. In Celtic legend the Fortunate Isles, or Isles of the Blest, or Tir nA nOg, somewhere on the Western Ocean, is the home of the gods, who welcome the souls of heroes. In Norse mythology Valhalla is the place warriors go after death, and they are welcomed there by the Valkyrie. The word “heaven” appears in many common expressions. When you are very happy you are “in seventh heaven”; but, if you are a bit annoyed, you say, “For heaven’s sake, hurry up!”

Hell : In Christian belief, hell is the eternal dwelling place of the souls of sinners. It is related to the Jewish concept of Sheol, the abode of all dead, and also to Hades. In Greek mythology Hades (or Pluto) was the ruler of the underworld of the dead. Later the place itself, gloomy but not a place of punishment like the later Christian hell, became known as Hades. Islam has a similar hell. The Christian Hell figures in many works of literature, notably in Dante Alighiri’s The Divine Comedy and in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The word appears in many common expressions, as in “going to hell in a handbasket,” meaning that a person is rapidly deteriorating in one way or another, and “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” meaning that your deeds speak louder than your words.

The End of the Rainbow

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 29, 2005
New York Times
Dublin

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg. (Continued)

By WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago

After nearly a decade of court battles, scientists plan to begin studying the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man next week.

A team of scientists plans to examine the bones at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum in Seattle beginning July 6, according to their attorney, Alan Schneider.

Four Northwest Indian tribes had opposed the study, claiming the skeleton could be an ancestor who should be buried. The Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers had sided with the tribes.
(Continued)

Archaeologists find more Iron Age buildings
The Truro Packet, Cornwall, UK

An archaeological excavation has been carried out at Truro College playing fields before construction work for the Fal Building begins. The work, by a team of archaeologists from Cornwall county council’s historic environment service (HES), has been funded by Truro College.

Three large areas were stripped by machine, targeting anomalies of possible archaeological interest indicated by a geophysical survey carried out last autumn.

The archaeological work then concentrated in one of the areas adjacent to the site of the new Richard Lander School where an Iron Age settlement of 12 hut circles was discovered by HES last summer. An oval-shaped house, part of the same settlement, was excavated and fragments of Iron Age pottery, known as South Western Decorated Ware dating to the 2nd or 1st century BC, were recovered from the eaves-drip gully surrounding the house. A La Téne Celtic brooch of broadly the same date was discovered alongside the pottery.

Even more exciting was the discovery of another Iron Age settlement, comprising three round houses within an enclosure ditch. All that remained of these houses were holes in the ground to hold the posts that would have supported the wattle walls and thatched roofs and pits in which their hearths were lit.

The pottery from the second settlement has still to be identified but appears to be of the Cordoned Ware style which, according to its type, can belong to three different phases spanning the later Iron Age and Roman-British periods and may indicate the second settlement represents a slightly later phase of occupation on the site.

The help of volunteers from the Cornwall Archaeological Society and Truro College’s archaeology department has been much appreciated. It is proposed to exhibit some of the finds in a permanent display in one of the new buildings, probably in the public entrance area.

Iranian, Japanese archaeologists to study Neolithic caves at Tang-e Bolaghi

TEHRAN, June 18 (Mehr News Agency) — A team of Iranian and Japanese archaeologists is to study two Neolithic caves located at the ancient site of Tang-e Bolaghi in Iran’s southern province of Fars, an expert of Iran’s Archaeological Research Center announced on Saturday.

According to an agreement signed between the Archaeological Research Center and the University of Tsukuba, several Iranian archaeologists and eight experts from the Japanese university will begin work at the site next month,� Karim Alizadeh added.

“Due to the dearth of studies on Iranian Neolithic caves, the upcoming studies on the two caves will be very important,” he noted.

The caves are located in the area that is to become the reservoir of the Sivand Dam, which is scheduled to come on stream in March 2006, flooding some very significant ancient sites.

Tang-e Bolaghi is situated only four kilometers away from Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenid dynasty (about 550-331 BC) and the residence of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire. Even the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great is believed to be at risk. Pasargadae was registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List last July.

Tang-e Bolaghi also contains sites from the Paleolithic period, the early, middle, and late Elamite era (2700-645 BC), and the Sassanid era (224-651 CE).

Alongside the Iranian experts, teams of Italian, French, Polish, German, Australian, and Japanese archaeologists have been assigned to save 129 ancient sites at Tang-e Bolaghi.

The Neolithic period pertains to the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacturing of pottery and textiles. It is commonly thought to have begun circa 9000–8000 BC in the Middle East.

Possible Great Plains Campsite 700 Years Too Early
By Associated Press

GOODLAND, Kan. (AP) — Archaeologists have returned to a dig near the Colorado-Kansas border for a third summer, but this year’s dig has taken on new importance. Radiocarbon dating results finished in February showed that mammoth and prehistoric camel bones found at a rural site near Kanorado, about a mile from the Colorado border, dated back to 12,200 years ago.

That would mean people who once camped at the site may have arrived in the Great Plains 700 years before historians previously thought. (Continued)

Gaelic Language Gets Official EU Status

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
Associated Press Writer
Jun 13, 7:11 PM EDT

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — The European Union is saying “Failte!” - Welcome! - to Gaelic, Ireland’s little-used native tongue. But while official status is a boost to those campaigning to save the language from extinction, the move comes with a price: It will require the hiring of an estimated 30 Gaelic speakers at a cost to EU taxpayers of about $4.15 million annually.

Translation costs for the EU’s 20 official languages had already been spiraling out of control. In January, officials said the amount was set to pass $1 billion following the entry in 2004 of 10 new EU members chiefly from Eastern Europe. (Continued)

Celtic Cross : The Celtic cross is essentially a traditional Christian cross with a circle overlying the point where the lines meet. This symbol evolved in the British Isles, and the earliest forms date from the seventh to ninth centuries in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. The oldest Celtic crosses were carved into large slabs of rock that lay flat on the ground. Later versions stand in an upright position, with rock carved away from the cross. Tenth-century Irish crosses were sometimes capped with a pitched roof. Celtic crosses were often decorated with interlaced knot work, spirals, key patterns, animal figures, foliage designs, and Biblical stories. Some crosses were memorials, inscribed with names of individuals; modern Celtic crosses are often used as tombstones in Irish churchyards.

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