Viral Mythology: How the Truth of the Ancients was Encoded and Passed Down through Legend, Art, and Architecture

206 Pages·2014·2.08 MB·English

by  Marie Jones

VIRAL
MYTHOLOGY
HOW THE TRUTH OF THE ANCIENTS WAS ENCODED AND
PASSED DOWN THROUGH LEGEND, ART, AND
ARCHITECTURE
MARIE D. JONES and LARRY FLAXMAN
Copyright ©2014 by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman All rights reserved
under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book
may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented,
without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
Unless otherwise indicated, images are in the public domain.
VIRAL MYTHOLOGY
EDITED BY JODI BRANDON
TYPESET BY EILEEN MUNSON
Cover design by Zoe Shtorm
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Library of Congress
has cataloged the print edition as follows: Jones, Marie D., 1961—
Viral mythology : how the truth of the ancients was encoded and passed down
through legend, art, and architecture / Marie Jones, Larry Flaxman. -- 1
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Behind every myth, fairy tale, and legend--hidden within the art,
song, and structures of ancient times--is an encoded layer of wisdom, science,
and truth passed down throughout history. This book will examine how
information went “viral” long before the Internet, and served as the foundation
information went “viral” long before the Internet, and served as the foundation
for mythology, sacred architecture, and symbolic imagery throughout the
ancient world”-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60163295-1 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-60163-496-2 (ebook) 1.
Myth. 2. Mythology. I. Flaxman, Larry. II. Title.
BL304.J66 2014
201’.3--dc23
2013040943
This book is dedicated to
Max Jones and Mary Essa Flaxman.
The information of the past and present
is theirs to build a better future with.
May they use it well.
Acknowledgments
Marie and Larry would like to acknowledge Lisa Hagan, our amazing agent,
who is a superhero who makes things happen! Thank you, Lisa, for everything!
To Michael and Laurie Pye and the team at New Page Books, you guys ROCK.
Thanks for another chance to spread our gospel and have fun doing it! To the
amazing team at Warwick Associates, you make us look so good! To all the
people who contributed to this book, we appreciate your time and insights more
than we can say. And to our fans and followers and friends and radio hosts and
supporters, and even our enemies, you guys make it all worthwhile; we thank
you from the bottom of our hearts!
Marie wishes to also thank:
To my mom, Milly, who never ceases to be there for me and is always
supportive and loving, the best things a mom could ever be. What would I do
without you? And to my dad, John, who watches from heaven, smiling, thanks
for all you instilled in me and taught me. To my sister and best friend, Angella,
you are my support column and confidante and so much more! To my brother,
John, thanks for all your humor and craziness! To my dear friends, my writer
colleagues, and my Wahines, what would I do without any of you?
Let me once again thank Larry Flaxman, for the long conversations that lead
to new ideas, for the laughs, the friendship, the sad times we picked each other
up, the happy times we bubbled over with excitement, for the long and
frustrating periods of hard work, and then waiting for the payoffs, for pushing
me to think deeper and wider and bigger and challenging me to do better and be
a better person, and for all the amazing good times that await us as we venture
forth into new territory. I treasure it all, Larry. Are you sick of me yet? There is
so much more to come!
And to my son, Max, who is my universe, my sun, my moon, my heart, and
my soul. Everything I do, I do it for you.
Larry would like to thank:
There are so many amazing people in my life that attempting to cram them all
into a few paragraphs is impossible. With that being said, please know that I am
eternally grateful, and would like to apologize in advance if I have failed to
mention your name.
Firstly, I would like to thank my mom, Sheila, and my dad, Norman, for
providing such a loving, nurturing childhood and upbringing. Those formative
years have absolutely instilled in me the qualities and traits that have served to
mold and form me into the man I am today. I am so incredibly honored to be
your son and learn from the best. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss seeing or
hearing your voices. I love you both more than words, and look forward to the
day that we will be reunited in “The Grid.”
I would also like to thank my wife, Emily, for understanding (and tolerating!)
my often-hectic working hours and crazy travel schedule. I can’t even imagine
how difficult it must be!
In addition, I am extremely thankful to all of my friends, fans, and associates
that provide me with advice, comments, ideas, and motivation. You folks make
the long hours and sleepless nights worthwhile!
Marie D. Jones, I don’t even know where to start. I look back over the last six
years and continue to be amazed at what we have been able to accomplish
together. We absolutely make one hell of a team! Despite both experiencing
profound loss last year, we have managed to rise above, and motivate, inspire,
and encourage not only others, but each other. I am so incredibly thankful that
you are in my life. You are truly a wonderful friend, and I am so honored to not
only call you my friend, but to work exclusively with you. My mom always used
to say, “To health, wealth, and happiness!” and I couldn’t agree more.
So this brings us to the last and most significant person that I would like to
thank: my daughter, Mary Essa. I am so proud to call you my daughter. Words
cannot even describe how much you mean to me. Every time I look in your eyes
I see a window to my own soul. Your sense of wonderment mirrors and parallels
my own, and I look forward to many more exciting adventures with you. I love
you more than life itself!
Contents
Foreword by Heather Lynn, PhD
Prologue
Introduction: Going Viral
Chapter 1:
Information, Please: How We Spread It, How We Get It
Chapter 2:
Every Picture Tells a Story (Don’t It?): Image, Art, and Symbol
Chapter 3:
Of Gods and Goddesses: The Rise of the Written Word
Chapter 4:
Once Upon a Time: Story, Lore, and Legend
Chapter 5:
Archeoenigmas: Things out of Time and Place
Chapter 6:
Hidden Wisdom, Secret Truths
Chapter 7:
Outsourced: Ancient Aliens, Invisible Fields, and Other Outside
Information Sources
Chapter 8:
The Stories of Our Lives: How Today’s Ideas Will Become Tomorrow’s
Viral Mythology
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
Foreword
Collective Consciousness and Cloud Computing by
Heather Lynn, PhD
Consider for a moment a smartphone, laptop, and a desktop computer.
Though individually different in appearance and function, these devices can
often communicate with one another. In recent years, there has been a move
toward cloud computing, whereby varying electronic devices can share and
retrieve data through a remote source. In my point of view, this is somewhat
analogous to the way information seemed to “go viral” among humans during
ancient times. I call it the “Cosmic Cloud Computing” theory. However, by only
looking at the material evidence that is found in the archaeological record, we
may actually limit our understanding of how information spread in the ancient
world.
First, we must establish how truly limited our knowledge of history is.
Though primary schools may imply otherwise, our narrative of ancient cultures
has only recently been written. Apart from a handful of religious texts,
comparably few primary sources exist in the historical record about the lives and
cultures of some of the earliest civilizations. Our current understanding of these
civilizations is due in large part to the careful reconstruction of evidence from
excavations and the subsequent analysis of artifacts. The greatest majority of this
research has only been in the past few hundred years—just a speck on the time
line of the history of man.
Originally seen as a hobby, antiquarianism, as it was initially called, has been
around since at least the first millennium BCE, as noted in ancient Greek texts
that ponder lost technologies based on stone. Inquiry into the past has likely
always been a part of human interests. People have searched for missing
treasures and artifacts since prehistory and have routinely looted graves.
However, the transformation of this informal activity into a science did not take
place until the 17th and 18th centuries CE.
The first systematic archaeological excavations are considered to have taken
place in the 18th century, beginning with three significant sites: the Roman cities
of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 1738, Thomas Jefferson’s excavations in
Virginia in 1784, and Napoleon’s famous Egyptian excavations in 1798. The
Virginia in 1784, and Napoleon’s famous Egyptian excavations in 1798. The
study of these sites eventually led to a boon of discoveries in the years ahead,
from the Sumerian discoveries in 1899 to the discoveries of the Minoan, Olmec,
and so on.
Organizational efforts started to occur with the formation of antiquarian
societies in the 19th century. Many of these societies observed basic guidelines
regarding the classification of artifacts, the use of field notes and photography to
record excavations, and the publication of results. It is also in these societies that
we see the beginning of cooperative excavation and concern for the rights of
indigenous people.
Upon reflection, it becomes shockingly apparent just how new archaeology
is. The science of archaeology and related discoveries hit critical mass in the
early part of the 20th century and has snowballed ever since. This has led to
some of the most important and magnificent archaeological discoveries ever
made. Still, archaeology continues to develop both as a science and as a
profession, as does our understanding of our collective past. So how does
archaeology explain the transmission of common themes in myths, legends, art,
structures, and belief systems of the ancient world? Not adequately and certainly
not conclusively. As our knowledge of the past is continuously changing, so are
our theories and explanations.
The best place to begin examining the transmission of communication in
ancient history is in Mesopotamia. This encompasses the area between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. By at least the fourth millennium BCE,
the first urban cultures started to form. These early civilizations included the
Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. A substantial amount of
knowledge has been gained from these civilizations due to their meticulous
record-keeping.
In Mesopotamia, as well as in Egypt, there was a quickening of cultural
development and a population increase in the last centuries of the fourth
millennium BCE. In a blink of an eye (about 300 years), we see complex
structures, theologies, and written languages emerge. The reasons for this
quickening remain a mystery and are still being debated by scholars. However,
one school of thought is that advances in these civilizations were brought about
by incursions of people from Western Asia. Some researchers believe in the
existence of an “Asiatic Invasion” that transformed an earlier African culture
and established the foundations on which the dynastic state was brought about.
However, this view has no firm support in the archaeological record. This is not
to imply that there was no contact. There is little doubt about the cultural
relations between Egypt and Western Asia. Many researchers believe that