And the Romans invented concrete and the arch.

wha? Oh and a note...Edith Hamilton's book was part of the text material used in our mythology classes in high school for YEARS AND YEARS. I actually own two different copies of the book one with a black cover and one with a white cover w/Perseus holding Medusa's head

Probably. Many of the christian rites, doctrines and holidays can be traced to origins outside the faith. For example the Christian holidays seem to line up w/"pagan" seasonal rites. The act of burning incense during a mass is a hold over from when the religion was "underground" and services were being held in catacombs and barns. The smell was so overwhelming that incense needed to be burned. ***the "greco-roman pantheon" is actually Greek in origin for "a temple dedicated to all the gods". The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon & much of its mythology but changed the names (to protect the innocent I suppose) hence Zeus became Jupiter, Hera became Juno, Ares became Mars, Aphrodite became Venus etc

And the Romans invented concrete and the arch.

by Quasizoid on Pagan UnderWorld

After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing in 55 B.C., said the native Celts "believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent."

First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.

But with only the Romans' word to go on—the ancient Celts left no written record of their own—it's been easy for historians to dismiss such tales as wartime propaganda.

Until now, that is.

[u]Gruesome Druid Discoveries[/u]

Recent gruesome finds appear to confirm the Romans' accounts, according to Secrets of the Druids, a new documentary airing Saturday on the U.S. National Geographic Channel.

Perhaps the most incriminating evidence is the 2,000-year-old, bog-mummified body of Lindow Man, discovered in England in the 1980s. Lindow Man's manicured fingernails and finely trimmed hair and beard suggest that he may have been of high status—possibly even a Druid himself.

At least one thing appears nearly certain about the ancient twentysomething: He was the victim of a carefully staged sacrifice.

Recent studies have revealed that Lindow Man's head had been violently smashed and his neck had been strangled and slashed.

[u]Druid Fountain of Blood[/u]

"You've got a rope tightened round his neck, and at the moment where the neck was constricted, the throat was cut, which would cause an enormous fountain of blood to rise up," said archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green, an archaeologist at Cardiff University in Wales and an expert on the Druids.

Another clue lay inside the body's well-preserved gut: pollen grains from mistletoe, a plant that was sacred to the Druids. (Romans wrote that Druids cut mistletoe from trees with golden sickles.)

Lindow Man's death is dated to around A.D. 60, when the Romans launched a new offensive in the island of Great Britain, currently part of the United Kingdom.

He may have been sacrificed to persuade the Celtic gods to halt the Roman advance, Aldhouse-Green said.

"Something had to be done to stop them in their tracks," she said in the documentary. "And what better way than sacrificing a high-status nobleman?"

The idea jibes with something Julius Caesar wrote: In times of danger, the Celts believed that "unless the life of a man be offered, the mind of immortal gods will not favor them."

[u]Mass Druid Sacrifice?[/u]

Other grisly clues come from a cave in Alveston, England.

Skeletons belonging to as many as 150 people and dating back to about the time of the Roman conquest were discovered in 2000.

Druids may have killed the victims—who show evidence of skull-splitting blows—in a single event. It may have been the Roman invasion itself that escalated the Druids' ritualized slaughter, researchers say.

Mark Horton, an archaeologist at the University of Bristol, thinks the pile of bodies suggests savage resistance to the Romans, either on the battlefield or through deadly ritual.

"Maybe the whole thing is a gigantic sacrifice ... an appeasement to the gods in order that they will get ultimate victory against the Romans," Horton said.

The Alveston cave bones hint at something even more sinister—cannibalism.

A human thighbone in the cave had been broken open in exactly the same method people use to get at the nutritious bone marrow of nonhuman animals.

But if the bone is proof of Celtic cannibalism, the practice was probably extremely rare, Horton said. It may be evidence of increasing hunger and desperation as Roman invaders closed in, he added.

"Least Bad Evidence"

Researchers have struggled in the past to link any archaeological evidence to the Druids, let alone signs of human sacrifice or cannibalism, said archaeologist Simon James of the University of Leicester, U.K.

"There has always been a suspicion that what the Romans were saying was atrocity propaganda. But some recent finds like Lindow Man suggest that there were dark and bloody goings-on," said James, who was not involved in the new documentary.

The mistletoe pollen from Lindow Man is the "least bad archaeological evidence we've got that fits in with these stories about the Druids," he added.

"Maybe mistletoe plants had been dusted on his food ritually, a bit like spraying holy water around, or dunked in his drink," James said.

If Lindow Man and others were in fact sacrificed in a bid to stop the Romans, their lives were lost in vain.

By the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., the Celts' defeat and absorption into the Roman Empire was nearly complete across Europe.

Today, their once wide-ranging culture lives on mainly in the traditional languages of Ireland, Wales, and Brittany, France.

(Read "The Celtic Realm" from National Geographic magazine.)

http://news.nationalgeographic.....s-sacri...

Could it be that the ancients attributed things they didn't understand to the paranormal because it was beyond the scope of their scientific knowledge at the time?

Well, there was litle division in the e.g. Celtic world betwixt the normal and paranormal but how about ...one of the earliest written accounts of the paranormal? In the first century A.D., the great Roman author and statesman Pliny the Younger recorded one of the first typical ghost stories in his letters, they are famous for their realistic accounts of ordinary life during the Roman Empire. Pliny documented that the ghost of an old man with a long beard, rattling chains, i.e. quite a typical haunting was haunting his house in Athens.

Have yourself some fun and see if you can find the details of how the ghost was err..."laid" to rest /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

It's interesting for me. Because of our family's namesake, Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous Roman orator. There are many paranormal books with his quote's.

However, it's interesting to see how far back the discussions of the paranormal began. And, their take on what it means, or how it effected their lives.

Could it be that the ancients attributed things they didn't understand to the paranormal because it was beyond the scope of their scientific knowledge at the time?

Its easy to look for beings better then us when so many people think the human race isn't worthy of anything.

Agreed. They think that man couldn't have built the pyramids without the help of ET's. Geesh gotta give ourselves some credit. I always have a problem with those who say that every great achievement was with the help of people from another planet. If ET did come here and help us why not teach us how to fly well before the early 1900's?

PS Just becasue two differants peoples build simular structures on two differant continants also does not show proof of aliens coming here.

The thing is about Pyramids - National Geographic Mag did an excellent discovery article in the mag. They found where they housed and fed the people who built them ... how well they were treated, they were not whipped and abused. They had working cycles - well fed - family visitation - vacations and such. They showed the trial and error ones before they got it 'right' ... Nothing about "ET" helping at all ... Just good math - trial and error mini-projects and a lot of elbow grease and well cared for work crews.

As to the last part of your post the "1900's" and "Flying" -> Well duh! They had/have a "NON INTERFERENCE POLICY" /rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

They can interfer in construction ... they can interfer in the religious and belief .... but they cannot interfer in teaching how to ... ummm.... I cannot even type this straight faced! /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

No one asked but why do we automatically assume that ETs are benevolent? We'd better hope that the ETs are more merciful to us then mankind has been to "less advanced/sophisticated" cultures historically. I think Stephen Hawking might be onto something. I guess we'd like to believe that an advanced race wouldn't be so banal as being interested only in conquest and resources. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but when you hear things like one of the biggest known deposits of Lithium (Li) was found in Afghanistan (if true the economic repricussions/implications are mind boggling)....and the West sits by and does nothing while major oppression is happening all over the world but only chooses to get involved when it's a major oil producing nation....makes you wonder how "advanced" we really are.

I agree that it's not very likely that aliens would be coming to give us a laurel and hearty handshake, so to speak. They would be more likely to be here for nefarious purposes, or at least ones that benefit them, not us. Or maybe they're already here like some people say. The more politicians I watch on TV, the more I suspect that the Reptilians really are amongst us. /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

The lithium find is interesting. I certainly hope the US demands a share large enough to cover the money we've spent on the war there. Just my opinion.

Getting involved with other countries is such a complex subject. Do we have the right to interfere in the destiny of another country? Should we get involved if the repression of people is based on a religion? Do we have the right to impose our ideas and culture on other countries more than we are already doing with our music, TV shows, etc? The older I get the less I know the answer to these questions.

The problem is the law of unintended consequences. When people overthrow their governments, like in Egypt, a void of leadership is created. What will flow into that void is unknown but right now it looks like it's going to be forces in opposition to the US, probably the Muslim Brotherhood. That's not good for our interests or for world stability, even if it might be what the Egyptians want. Our nation's interests often conflict with the interests of other countries. So what do we do?

IMHO, this point is moot. Right now America is so flat broke and in debt that we can't afford to get involved anywhere else in the world. Medicare is busted, medicaid is broke, social security went into the red last year, even the postal service is deep in debt. How do you lose money when you are the only legal way to send first class mail??? But I digress. We need to keep our money at home until we pay off our $14.4 TRILLION debt. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Would love to talk to Erich Von Daniken! lol

Is that the sound of music or the wrestling family?? I always get them confused.

I love this show, though I think they are a little presumptuous with their theories. Ex: There were giants in ancient times, so they must have been genetically engineered by aliens. They could have been genetic mutations just as easily in my book. Don't assume just because something is unexplained that it is automatically extraterrestrial in nature. Don't get me wrong, I believe in the existence of ETs, but I don't think we should automatically assume their involvement.

Agreed. They think that man couldn't have built the pyramids without the help of ET's. Geesh gotta give ourselves some credit. I always have a problem with those who say that every great achievement was with the help of people from another planet. If ET did come here and help us why not teach us how to fly well before the early 1900's?

PS Just becasue two differants peoples build simular structures on two differant continants also does not show proof of aliens coming here.

No one asked but why do we automatically assume that ETs are benevolent? We'd better hope that the ETs are more merciful to us then mankind has been to "less advanced/sophisticated" cultures historically. I think Stephen Hawking might be onto something. I guess we'd like to believe that an advanced race wouldn't be so banal as being interested only in conquest and resources. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but when you hear things like one of the biggest known deposits of Lithium (Li) was found in Afghanistan (if true the economic repricussions/implications are mind boggling)....and the West sits by and does nothing while major oppression is happening all over the world but only chooses to get involved when it's a major oil producing nation....makes you wonder how "advanced" we really are.

I love this show, though I think they are a little presumptuous with their theories. Ex: There were giants in ancient times, so they must have been genetically engineered by aliens. They could have been genetic mutations just as easily in my book. Don't assume just because something is unexplained that it is automatically extraterrestrial in nature. Don't get me wrong, I believe in the existence of ETs, but I don't think we should automatically assume their involvement.

Agreed. They think that man couldn't have built the pyramids without the help of ET's. Geesh gotta give ourselves some credit. I always have a problem with those who say that every great achievement was with the help of people from another planet. If ET did come here and help us why not teach us how to fly well before the early 1900's?

PS Just becasue two differants peoples build simular structures on two differant continants also does not show proof of aliens coming here.