XPost: alt.religion.druid, alt.traditional.witchcraft, soc.culture.celtic
From: laighleas@nospam.yahoo.co.uk
"allan connochie" wrote in message
news:414b9a19@news.greennet.net...
>
> "Kevin Jones" wrote in message
> news:cifmog$ok8$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
> > "allan connochie" wrote in message
> > news:414ae741@news.greennet.net...
> > >
> > > "Bogman" wrote in message
> > > news:cidc5g$7g8$1@titan.btinternet.com...
> > > >
> > > > "Searles O'Dubhain" wrote in message
> > > > news:4u6dnYMweriDot_cRVn-qA@giganews.com...
> > > > >
> > > > > "flink" wrote in message
> > > > > news:chtave$6e6$1@hercules.btinternet.com...
> > > > > > Absolute crap. Celtic crosses were first manufactured at
Chester,
> > and
> > > > > are a
> > > > > > variant of XP, the Greek for Chi Rho, the first two letters of
> > Christ.
> > > > >
> > > > > How was this information verified? Are you claiming Chester as
the
> > > > > point of origin for all Celtic crosses?
> > > > >
> > > > > Searles
> > > > >
> > > > Verified by archeology old fruit! Chester, like Carlisle, was a
great
> > > > Romano-British and Christian city, both these two cities guarded the
> > > > corridor between Acotland and Wales, i.e. Strathclyde or Ystradclwyd
> and
> > > > Powys.
> > >
> > > I don't think he's asking for evidence that Chester and Carlisle
> existed.
> > > He's asking for evidence that 'Celtic crosses were first manufactured
at
> > > Chester' which is what you claimed. If it is so and is verified by
> > > archaeology then why don't you just give the references?
> >
> > It isn't verified by archaeology.
>
> I suspected not. Not much of what Boggie writes is verified by anything.
:-)
> Thanks for the interesting post Kevin.
You're welcome. I've occasionally grumbled about the rather artificial
division between wheel symbols and Celtic crosses - I suspect that Celtic
Christians just continued to use an indigenous symbol, which is probably
unsurprising. It's becoming academically accepted that Christianity in
Ireland, for example, proceeded by syncretism, rather than replacement. In
fact I've seen a couple of articles arguing that Christianity in Late Roman
Britain wasn't exactly orthodox, and was likely to have been influenced by
other religions in the province.
Incidentally, the topic of the dissertation related wheel symbolism and
religious iconography to concepts of time and time measurement, as applied
to the agricultural cycle. I had a chat while writing it with a Danish
colleague who had done some work on the orientation of wheel symbols in
Danish petroglyphs. The four-spoked varieties appear to be generally
orientated to cardinal points in the sun's annual travel i.e. solstice
points. This concurred with my hypothesis. I did wonder why the late
Neolithic/early Bronze Age Danes didn't simply use a post and shadow for
marking solar positions, until a friend in Michigan pointed out that frost
heave would have the post going all over the place, and thus rapidly make it
useless. This is apparently easily observed in their area by the drunken
attitude soon assumed by rural electricity poles. It appears that the
climate in parts of Michigan is not far removed from that of Scandinavia in
that respect. To avoid this problem, you need to bury a post more than four
feet deep with a massive foundation, and even then it may flex unacceptably
for such work. It was simpler, it appears, to simply carve an orientated
design on a massive flat bit of bedrock that would be unaffected by frost
heave. It obviously worked if my colleague can still mark the alignments.
The only other alternative for the period was a massive orientated earthwork
structure, which would require a large workforce to construct, plus a degree
of central organisation. As I recall, there is at least one example of such
a structure in Denmark - it's later however.
Kevin
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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