The Scribal Pose Cross Culturaly

Scribes were students before they were teachers. During each phase of learning, receiving knowledge, and teaching, giving knowledge, there were particular "stances" one would take to align the brain in the most optimal position for what it was about to receive. We see these poses today in the statues of ancient KMT and the writings on the walls. But you know what, scribes exist cross culturally, not just in Africa. Some believe writing developed independently by different cultures separately. There was no school that the first writers went to in each culture....because they all had no contact until Columbus, remember? In America we celebrated Columbus Day this week, which originally was October 12, 1492, and the children were given an excused absence from school. It is a federal holiday honored by the school system where children are not compelled to learn to read and write and the like. So imagine a world, shall we, where the human race scattered across the globe uncivilized and remained as such until each independently developed their own civilization elements. Why is this important to the Egyptian Goddess Seshat whose imagery spans a history of over 7,000 years? Let's look at the 8 litmus test in which scholars determine who was and was not civilized.

1. They had to have a writing system 
   
   
2. They need to have used a complex government- Law 
   
   
   
   
3. The complex government should supply public works to the people, like bridges and irrigation..benefits to all.. check out the Merinda culture 5000BC (stretching-of-the-rope technology to produce lines and angles in the land)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. They need to have artisans and specialized jobs... check out the Badarian culture of 4400BC and the legendary god Ptah, master of crafts. 

   

   Naqada I /Lapis Sight

   

   Ptah/ Lapis Skald Cap

   

   Ptah / Agriculture/Green god

5. Complex religion. "The earliest known shrines appeared in Egypt in the late Predynastic Period, in the late fourth millennium BC, at sites such as Sais and Buto in Lower Egypt and Nekhen and Coptos in Upper Egypt." (Wiki)

   

   Luxor Temple

   

   Sem Priest in Temple

   

   Sem Priest or Priest of Seshat

   
   

   

   Sem Priest/Zulu Priest

   
   
6. Farmers along river valleys to support the growth of cities 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Architecture 

   

   Mexican Hut

   

   Early America

   

   Ancient Egypt 2600BC+

   
   
8. They need to have a social class in which they separate groups of people based off their connection to the specialized jobs 
   

So for me taking into considering the elements of the early culture of people who thrived from writing and the laying of the land to produce specializations and support large city states I get all warm inside when I see scribal poses cross culturally. Particularly, when I see they coincide with the first temples, and farmers, and artist, and irrigation, and the color blue, and large populations along rivers of any given culture. Common threads and elements that to me or too much alike to be considered to have developed independently. So Columbus I am sorry but I dont think you chartered the first boat to the Americas and the education break for this day really should be put in its proper perspective in our school systems. 

So, enough about cultural continuity and "civilized" folks, who were the we ancients modeling in art? Who was the wet nurse? what did it signify? Why is our galaxy the Milky Way? Why do we have a thirst for knowledge? I mean really, should all cultures who build mounds and write create their own breast feeding mother in art? Why is the act of breastfeeding created in art in similar ways as the scribal poses and prayer stances? Whats this all about?? Do we really believe its about momma feeding little Johnny Appleseed colostrum? Did the ancients create permanent art and put this act in the temples, building, graves, ect for reverence to their mother when they were a child? I mean, what explanation are we really given for this cross cultural phenomena?

My first inclination when I started to study Seshat and read a play in the book of Thoth, in which the one-who-loves-knowledge in the script says his line about how he thirst for her and calls to her for him to suckle at her breast. This made me think that maybe the statues of Isis and the like are really just another version or aspect of Seshat during that phase of the scholars reverence to their educational path. Not a different person, but a different recognition in the eyes of the artist to a goddess with many favorable things to acknowledge. But even if Seshat is not all of these goddesses with different headdresses and titles in one, she certainly contained the image of the woman who breastfed the ancient Africans in their quest to become knowledgeable. Knowledgeable about math, architecture, astronomy, agriculture, medicine, and divinity.

Last month I drove to Cahokia Mounds in St Louis after visiting another ancient pyramid site in Evansville, Indiana while visiting the casino. I saw this statue of a figure with a bended knee, which I recognized as a scribal pose, breastfeeding.

Cahokia Mounds
City of the Sun/Heliopolis
Illinois North America
1,000-1400AD
Found at Pyramid site

Statue of a Scribe Amenemhet,
Buhen, Dynasty 18,
reign of Scribe Hatshepsut
(1479-?1458 b.c.), Diorite

MIDDLE TO LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
ILLINOIS, INDIANA & KENTUCKY
Flourite: 3 right knee up,
second statue is in Lotus position with beaded forelock found off Ohio River

Etowah
Cartersville, GA North America
Found at Pyramid Site

Sandy 1250AD Tennessee State Artifact
Sellars Farm, Lebanon, TN pyramid site

Seated figure
Ile-Ife, Nigeria, c. early 14th century ce
Copper. Height: 53.7 cm
Found on a shrine in Tada, on the Niger River, 192
km. northeast of Ife. Nigeria National Museums,
Lagos: 79. R. 18. Photo: Karin Willis, courtesy of the National Commission
of Monuments and Museums, Nigeria and The
Museum for African Art, New York
Figure wears a wrapper with a sash tied on the left hip

Scribal position with tools

This pose, called the Madonna, as well as the seated position in lotus and with one leg raised is found among the Chinese, Lakota, Australia, South America and more. What I've come to recognize is that the older something is the more applicable it is to more cultures. The history of Seshat goes back beyond Narmers palate and the early cultures in Africa 7,000 years ago.

Marsh mallow

We are deep into the fall season and toasted Marshmallows are my children's favorite. But what is the history of this campfire favorite? I like to trace the roots of plants to the roots of people and culture.
 Marshmallow are a central part of our "holi" days all with roots in Ancient Africa. Marshmallow topped hot chocolate for Christmas, Marshmallow easter bunnies, Marshmallow centered candy for Halloween, Marshmallow topped candied yams for Thanksgiving. Each equinox celebration carrying the tradition of the food with the the cultures that carries the celebrations.

"The Althaea Officinalia, it's scientific name, is a woody stemmed perennial herb, which grows 2 to 4 feet high and has little delicate pinkish-white petals. These five petal flowers bloom only in the summer months and their long thick roots are a pale yellow color.

The ancient Egyptians used mallow root for making candied delicacies for their gods, nobility, and Pharaohs, over 2000 years ago. Since it was a crime for anyone else to eat these sugar like tidbits, children had to look towards honey and figs for curing the candy sweet tooth.

Egyptian marshmallows don't look like the marshmallows we know today. They mixed the mallow sap with honey, grains, and baked this into cakes."

The plant looks like cotton when dry and okra when flowering, to me. The French carried it to America. Most interesting to me of the plant that inspired ghostbusters is that it can be used to make cords, as in the stretching of the cord ceremony. 

In this video I thought she gave a good explanation of the medicinal value which the ancient egyptians recorded as well. It protects the gut and as a reflex also the lungs. This may help people with digestive problems that may also get pneumonia or bronchitis along with their acid reflux.

The marshmallow plant's sap was also used by gladiators in ancient Rome

The Search for Egyptian Blue

Today my daughter came home from school and began to teach me about the origins of writing in Mesopotamia and the origin of civilization. I asked her about Odivie Gorge and Napta Playa and its proximity to Mesopotamia. She began to explain to me the 8 litmus test for a civilized society. So therefore, not all people were civilized or contributed of civilization. Having been a student of anthropology at Vanderbilt I understand these teachings, however they do not seem to be comprehensive or logical.

I like to look at cultural continuity. Like through linguistics or culinary taste or color choice. Such as my favorite color, blue. Blue has been noted as possibly the earliest artificial pigment ever produced. Made by sand, lime, and copper (CaCuSi₄O₁₀) or another site says calcium, copper (may contain metal or malachite), silica sand and soda. . And this began in Africa. At least by the Old Kingdom, more likely Naqada period, depending on if the source is also referencing Mesopotamia. I try to focus on developments of the Old Kingdom and prior in this blog, because it was one of the highest times of notoriety for Seshat before the role of woman changed in much Africa. Interestingly enough, this Old Kingdom blue was also found in the Parthenon, of which we have a replica here in Nashville with Nike & Athena, along with a huge obelisk and river out front. Its also found in the Near East, Mediterranean, Pompeii, China, Mesopotamian inlays, on Artemis and Iris, the Byzantine fresco The Ascension of Christ, in a mural altarpiece in the Church of Sant Pere Terassa in Spain, terra cotta warriors, and the Mayan's blue come to mind, but I will have to look up the ingredients there to be sure its the same. "The precision and relative complexity of the procedure which must be followed to produce Egyptian blue therefore suggests that the ancient Egyptians’ grasp of chemistry was extraordinarily well advanced."

The photo or visible-induced infrared luminescence of African blue or Han blue and purple is intriguing to me. They emit infrared radiation when excited in the visible range. This is giving science the ability to reexamine ancient art to see the color that has faded. It also gives us the ability to see in "black & white" how intrinsically connected civilized cultures are through the cultural continuity of the use of this pigment. Science is also using it as a form of technology transfer and considering its usage in the application of things that need an extra layer of security, such as currency.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Tonight my local small town theater had a free showing of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Published in 1981, written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, and directed by Spielberg. I took the kids since I had never seen the movie before and had never been to this particular theater. I had heard in one of my undergraduate anthropology schooling one of the teachers comment about this movie. He said that it caused an increase in the number of people seeking anthropology degrees and wanting to get into the field. So, since I have a degree in Anthropology and African Studies, I thought now was a prime time to knock this one off my bucket list. I'm glad I did and will write my review here to share with you.

My first thought it WOW, the German's still have a heavy hand in Egypt!! This is what HOLYWOOD was imprinting in the minds of the masses of the 80s!! At the end of the movie I asked my son what he thought of it, he commented that he had seen it before. My son is 14. So I asked when, he said at a theater a few years ago. I googled it and the movie came out in 1981. When I told them that my other son said, "NO WAY, not with those kind of graphics!" Yes, its true, the movie is timeless. I did see masonic symbolism or footprints in the movie. But mostly I took away the German influence and fight for the ancient antiquities in Africa. Another interesting point to me was the snakes on the ground in the room of the ark. When I went to a grave site in Alabama of my ancestors my great uncle told me once to watch out because there are rattle snakes in there, he said that our at our cemetaries, to protect our ancestors. Both actors in the movies looked rattle snakes in the eyes.

When I first was drawn to research Seshat I hit a stumbling block because everything on the internet said the exact same thing, just on different sites. Or it was something that someone "divined". There was hardly any material on her.The only text I could find at Vanderbilt I had to have loaned from another library and it was in German. I searched high and low for someone to translate the book for me. There was only so many renewals they would allow me though. Then one week before I had send it back I met a German man who was interested in my Nashville Urban Food Forest project. We sat down for coffee and he attempted to help me. We didn't get to far because he said that the text had specialized words he was not familiar with. Some of which I could decipher because they were referencing Egyptian places and such. Needless to say, my only resort was retyping the book and using google translate. I didn't get all 400+ pages typed in time. So I didn't get too far. I was left frustrated that the text was not offered in English or that I could not download a copy online. I wondered how could such an important icon only have extensive research done on her by the German's? Outside of my opera vocal training at Vanderbilt I had no background or knowledge of Germans or their culture...except Hitler.

Watching the movie throughout they kept showing the German flag with its red and white and the horus falcon above the flag on the staff. Then when leaving Egypt and coming back to America at the end of the movie the first scene is a shot of the obelisk in DC then a long table with a man seated with the horus falcon directly behind his head. His words were that "important men" were watching over the covenant. 

Golden Books: Pyrgi Tablets

Pyrgi Tablets written in Etruscan and Phoenician languages. Etruscan Museum in Rome.

I came across a book made of gold, said to be the oldest multi-page book every found, which dates to 600BC. Being one who studies knowledge I was curious to know what it said and if anything relating to the goddess of writing could be found on its golden pages. It tells a story that again links Africa to Europe through the stories of the goddess. I am not so sure about the translation or that I understand fully what it means but a few of the words caught my attention: kkb (Star),  'strt (Astarte), krr (calendar month), rbt (lady, grand, large, female rabbatu), sms (sun), snt (year), heram (Hermes).
This is in the Pyrgi Tablets found in Santa Severa, Italy. Because the history of Seshat is so deeply entrenched in human culture instead of looking for direct clues, like Sst or her star symbol, I do not omit strings of commonalities that she represented when doing my research. So to see the star, which is her symbol, Astarte, which is a later representation of her aspects, Hermes, who is also a later representation of her aspect, calendar, which is a part of the body of knowledge she represented on time, year, and sun which is iconic with this representations of time and the divine. When I see all of these together it catches my attention and I imagine that the scribe may have been a priest of Seshat or student of the body of knowledge her icon represents. Maybe he or she even wore the leopard print garb! What is striking to me is here is that these symbolic terms are found among the Greek, once again linking Thebes to early civilized culture in Europe. In my Egypt in Nashville Tour I discuss some of these cultural continuities in architecture from Kemet to Greece that are seen in the Parthenon and "Lady Wisdom" Athena.

Other images from Pyrgi:

Detail of clay group with mythological scene from the Theban cycle, from the area of temple A at Pyrgi, mid-5th century BC.

Etruscan architectural plaque from the columen of the temple A at Pyrgi. Scene from the Theban Cycle, the Seven against Thebes: Menerva, Tinia, Capaneus, Tydeus and Melanippus

The poetry used hexameter and was recited orally. It is almost like the scripts we have existing today are lyrics to a rap song or music sheet. The Iliad and the Odyssey are examples of this poetry. These were a part of the Theban cycle, 4 lost epics now in Greek literature about the history of the Boeotian city of Thebes in dactylic hexameter. Said to be written between 750 and 500BC. The most famous story includes the number 7, "Seven against Thebes". It is a play about a battle between Argive (Argos) and Thebes led by Eteocles (King of Thebes). This was left for us today by Aeschylus the first of the 3 ancient greek tragedy writers, Sophocles and Euripides being the other two.

Is authorship is questioned in some of his plays because they continue to be "discoverd" on Egyptian papyrus.

http://ldsdoctrine.blogspot.com/2008/05/archeological-evidence-for-reformed_29.html