Sacred Places

Sacralization of the Borderlands on the Old Prussian Pomesania's Example

(Summary)


We base our modern idea of the Old Prussian holy places mostly on the medieval chroniclers’ tales and their modern continuers. We find out from them about the existence of holy groves, fields and lakes undertaken from their agricultural use. One couldn’t cut trees, cultivate plants or fish there. Such information let us locate sacrum places on the settlement borderlands. Settlement researches also confirm that. Such behaviour was not only focused on protection against desecration of the worship places, but also marked territory in ideological way. Borderland was not only manual or settlement barrier it was also an area under gods’ protection through sacral places and rituals.
The article examines the location of medieval sacral places of Pomesania, especially small territories like prussian „pulka” (slavic „włość”): Posluam, Alyem, Loypicz, Lynguar, Komor, Pobuz, Geria, Rudencz, Prezla, Resia, mentioned in 1250.
The knowledge based on written sources was completed by the results of archaeological finds, surface researches and local – medieval and modern folk tradition. The article cannot omit special monuments like cult statues (so called “baby”), which presence is also connected with worship places. Their relation with borderlands is very clear. Pomesania’s cemeteries were also acknowledged as sacral places.
Obligation of building churches, which locations are based on previous territorial borderlands refers to the tradition of old worship places. It was imposed by Treaty of Christburg from 1249.
Christianity made Old Prussian walk away from pagan practices, but the elements of old sacrum were still present in local societies. That fact, maintained not only in local tradition, but also in written medieval sources and plans from 17th and 18th century, will also be analyzed.
The article draws special attention to worship places from the area of historic Pomesania, but to understand the whole issue it became necessary to refer to wide analogies on the remaining of Prussian’s territory.


Die Sakralisierung von Grenzräumen am Beispiel Altpreussisches Pomesaniens

(Zusammenfassung)

Unser heutiges Bild von den heiligen Orten der Prußen stützt sich hauptsächlich auf die Berichte der mittelalterlichen Chronisten und ihrer frühneuzeitlichen Fortsetzer. Von ihnen erfahren wir u.a. über die Existenz heiliger Haine, Felder und Seen, die von der traditionellen Wirtschaftsweise ausgenommen waren. In ihnen durfte nicht Holz gehauen, Ackerbau betrieben oder Fisch gefangen werden. Diese Informationen erlauben es, die Orte des sacrum an den Rändern der Siedlungsräume zu lokalisieren, was ebenfalls durch Siedlungsforschungen bestätigt wird. Diese Lage sollte die Kultorte nicht nur vor Profanisierung schützen, sondern hing auch mit einer ideologischen Kennzeichnung von Territorien zusammen. Grenzen bildeten nicht nur physische Barrieren und Siedlungshindernisse, sondern ebenfalls Sakralorte, an denen man sich durch Rituale unter den Schutz der Götter begab.
Im Artikel wird die Lokalisierung frühmittelalterlicher Sakralorte im Gebiet Pomesanien betrachtet, die sich besonders auf die 1250 erwähnten kleinen Siedlungsräume [prußisch „pulka“ oder slawisch „włość”] (Posluam, Alyem, Loypicz, Lynguar, Komor, Pobuz, Geria, Rudencz, Prezla, Resia) verteilen.
Unser auf den Schriftquellen basierendes Wissen wurde ebenfalls durch die Ergebnisse archäologischer Ausgrabungen, Geländebegehungen und mittelalterliche und neuzeitliche Volksüberlieferungen ergänzt. In diesem Artikel können die Denkmäler besonderer Bedeutung, wie sie die prußischen Kultstatuen (sog. Baben) bilden, nicht unerwähnt bleiben, deren Lokalisierung ebenfalls mit Kultorten in Verbindung steht – nota bene ist ihr Zusammenhang mit dem Grenzgebiet eindeutig. Als Sakralorte werden ebenfalls die auf dem Gebiet Pomesaniens vorkommenden Friedhöfe angesehen.
Sicherlich wurde an die Tradition alter Kultorte im Christburger Vertrag von 1249 angeknüpft, der den Bau von Kirchen vorschrieb, deren Lokalisierung den ehemaligen territorialen Grenzen entspricht.
Das Christentum zwang die Prußen, von ihren alten religiösen Praktiken abzulassen, allerdings erfüllten Elemente des ehemaligen sacrum weiterhin ihre Rolle in den lokalen Gesellschaften. Diese Tatsache, die nicht nur in der lokalen Überlieferung bewahrt ist, wird auch anhand mittelalterlicher Schriftquellen und Plänen des 17./18. Jh. untersucht.
Im vorliegenden Artikel wird besondere Aufmerksamkeit auf die Kultorte im Gebiet des historischen Pomesaniens gelegt, um das Problem jedoch besser verstehen zu können, erwies es sich als notwendig, Analogien aus den übrigen Gebieten Preußens heranzuziehen.

In this paper, I present a Maya legend of travelling saints and people searching for their home. The story shows the ways in which a sense of belonging is contested, recreated and sustained within the context of place and pilgrimage. I argue that to understand such a narrative, a phenomenal and existential experience associated to particular collective memories and performances must be taken into consideration in addition to historical, political and cultural backgrounds.

מחקר זה עוסק בתיאור וניתוח תהליך התהוותם של מקומות קדושים בעת הזו תוך שימת דגש על תפקידם של סוכני המקומות. שלושת האתרים העומדים במוקד המחקר הינם אתרי טבילה לאורך נהר הירדן המהווים מוקדי עליה לרגל לנוצרים ונמצאים בתהליך התהוות. הם סמוכים זה לזה ומתייחסים כולם אל הטבלת ישוע בנהר הירדן, אירוע המוזכר בכל ספרי הבשורה בברית החדשה. האתרים פועלים במרחב המכונה "ארץ הקודש". מרחב הנמצא תחת שליטה ריבונית של מדינות הלאום ישראל וירדן ואזור אשר בו מתנהל סכסוך טריטוריאלי ופוליטי ארוך שנים.

In 2003, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature Spirited Away (originally released in Japan in 2001 as “Sen and Chihiro’s Spiriting Away”) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. To this day, it is the only non-English film to be given the accolade, and in subsequent years it has only grown in acclaim. Despite its popularity in the West, Spirited Away is a distinctly Japanese film, heavily featuring traditional architecture and customs as well as foregrounding Shinto imagery and ideals in its plot. In an interview for The Art of Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away,” Miyazaki confirmed his intentions to headline these traditional concepts. He stated, “Surrounded by high technology and its flimsy devices, children are more and more losing their roots. We must inform them of the richness of our traditions.” His comments reflect that, despite popular representations of classical Japanese culture such as Spirited Away, Japan has become more and more secularised since the mid-twentieth century, and younger generations are increasingly growing up without knowledge of traditional Japanese customs, especially those of Shinto. This decline is in part due to the growing inaccessibility of physical Shinto spaces in modern Japan, a phenomenon that is reflected in the representation of Shinto as surrounded by modernity in Spirited Away.

By c. 3000 BCE, in the late Neolithic, there had been a significant change in the way people materialized their cosmology across Scotland with the introduction of free-standing stones that continued to be erected almost until the end of the Bronze Age (Burl, 1993, 2000). Significantly, a series of astronomical patternings have been empirically verified for many Bronze Age monuments that were erected in the latter Bronze Age (Higginbottom et al., 2000, 2001, 2015). Further, two series of complex landscape patternings associated with the monuments and their orientations have been identified (Higginbottom et al., 2015; Higginbottom and Clay, in press). However, when and where these patterns were first associated with standing-stone structures was unknown. Through innovative statistics and software we show that visible astronomical-landscape variables found at BronzeAge sites on the
inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were actually first established in stone nearly two millennia earlier, likely with the erection of two of the earliest dated British 'great circles': Callanish on the Isle of Lewis and Stenness on the Isle of Orkney. In particular,we introduce our new statistical test that enables the quantitative determination of astronomical connections of stone circles. It is seen that whilst different standing-stone monuments were created over time (Burl, 1993, 2000; Higginbottom et al., 2015) with a mixture of landscape variables (Higginbottom et al., 2015), we nevertheless see that highly relevant landscape markers and other aspects remained unchanged through these years. This suggests that there is some continuity of this cosmological system through time, despite the various radical material and social changes that occurred from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (Lynch, 2000; Mullin, 2001; Owoc, 2001).
https://www.altmetric.com/details/10434023#score
Co-author: Roger Clay

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

For copy of early draft paper see pre-print server:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.1338v2.pdf
LINK to pre-print article under file drop down menu in full document view (click on heading of this article if still on my main academia.edu page).

This early draft has half the explanatory text of the methodology of our JAS Reports paper. It is a condensed piece in a form similar to a Nature paper with supplementary text containing some explanations; please feel free to contact for more information.

The thesis studied the traditional representation of the Belarusians as the world-view system of ethocsience. The author studied the representation through ethnographic field observations, interviews, through the method of cognitive maps. Analysis of sets of representations has shown that the system of the traditional worldview of Belarusians consists of representations of the environment subsystems, man, relationship, traditional economy. Author in environmental studies analyzed Belarus traditional ethoastronomical, ethnometeorological, ethnobiological, ethoecological knowledge. The traditional representation of landscape and ritual practices of natural sacred places affect the management of natural resources. The authors are particularly studied transcendental representation of the person and the substance of the body. In the study of representations of the author it was first discovered by the full composition of the Belarusian network concepts kinship system and describes the specifics of the Belarusian kinship and heritage. The author has shown the relationship between the representations, beliefs and ritual specificity of the national traditional rural farming.
The obtained evidences, conclusions, methods and materials of the dissertation will be useful in the study of Belarusian, Ukrainian and, in general, European social representations, protection of intangible and tangible Cultural Heritage.
У дисертації комплексно досліджено традиційні уявлення білорусів як  світоглядну систему.  Уявлення виявлялися через проведення автором польових етнографічних спостережень, опитувань, метод карт уявлень. На підставі їх аналізу виявлено, що система традиційного світогляду білорусів кінця XX — початку ХХІ ст. складається з підсистем уявлень про: довкілля, людину, спорідненість, господарство. Автором при дослідженні навколишнього середовища аналізувалися білоруські традиційні етноастрономічні, етнометеорологічні, етнобіологічні етноекологичні знання.
Показані вплив традиційних уявлень про ландшафт та ритуальних практик на природно-антропогенних сакральних місцях на природокористування. При дослідженні уявлень про людину було звернуто значну увагу на дослідження трансцендентних уявлень про людину і субстанції організму. При дослідженні уявлень автором вперше був виявлений повний склад мережі концептів білоруського системи спорідненістю і описана специфіка білоруського спорідненості і спадщини. Автор розкрив взаємозв'язок між уявленнями і ритуальної специфікою національного традиційного сільського господарювання.
Отримані основі доказі, висновки, методі та матеріали дисертації будуть корисними при дослідження білоруських, українськім та й загалом європейських соціальних уявлень, охорони нематеріальної і матеріальної культурної спадщини.
У дысертацыі комплексна даследаваныя традыцыйныя ўяўленні беларусаў вывучаюцца як светапоглядная сістэма. Уяўленні выяўляліся праз правядзенне аўтарам  палявых этнаграфічных назіранняў, апытанняў, метад карт уяўленняў. На падставе іх аналізу выяўлена, што сістэма традыцыйны светапогляду беларусаў у канцы XX - пачатку XXI ст. Складаецца з падсістэм уяўленняў пра навакольнае асяроддзе, чалавека, сваяцтва, гаспадарку. Аўтарам пры даследаванні навакольнага асяроддзя аналізаваліся беларускія традыцыйныя  этнаастранамічныя, этнаметэрэалогічныя, этнабіялогічныя, этнаэкалагічныя веды. Паказаны ўплыў традыцыйных уяўленняў пра ландшафт и рытуальных практык на прыродна-антрапагенных сакральных месцах  на прыродакарыстанне. Пры даследаванні уяўленняў пра чалавека была звернута значная увага на даследаванне трансцэндэнтных уяўленняў пра чалавека і  субстанцыі арганізма. Пры даследаванні уяўленняў аўтарам упершыню быў выяўлены поўны склад сеткі канцэптаў беларускай сістэмы сваяцтвам і апісаная спецыфіка беларускага сваяцтва і спадчыны. Аўтар паказаў узаемасувязь паміж уяўленнямі і рытуальнай спецыфікай нацыянальнага традыцыйнага сельскага гаспадарання.
Атрыманыя доказы, высновы, метады і матэрыялы дысертацыі будуць карысныя пры вывучэнні беларускай, украінскай і агулам еўрапейскіх сацыяльных уяўленняў, аховы нематэрыяльнай і матэрыяльнай спадчыны.

§ Prof. Dr. Rana P.B. Singh (born: 15 December 1950) is researching in the fields of heritage planning, especially sacredscapes/religious places and heritagescapes, pilgrimages and settlement systems in Varanasi region since around five decades as writer, promoter, collaborator and organiser, and also did field studies in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Korea, and China. On these themes, he delivered special lectures and seminars (79 times, 1976—2020) at various institutions in countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, China PR, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, Japan, Rep. Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA (& Hawaii), USSR (Russia). His contributions include - Spatio-temporal Dimensional theory of Diffusion, Space Articulation theory in Indian villages, Literary images & Spirit of Place, Ritual Mandala & Sacrality of Space and Time, Pilgrimage Mandala, Ritual Mandala, Sacred Geography & Cosmic Order of Holy Places, Geomancy & Cultural symbolism in Hinduism, Concepts of Sacredscapes and Faithscapes, Pilgrimage systems and Self Organised Criticality theory, Cultural astronomy and Ordering of Sacredscapes and holy cities, Architectural symbolism and Heritage planning, framing the Heritage/ Sacred & Spiritual Ecology, 'faithscapes and sacredscapes', and RWYC- Reconnecting With Your Culture. His publications include over 340 papers and 43 books-anthologies on these subjects, including Banaras, Making of India’s Heritage City (2009), Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia (2010), and Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage: Sacred Space and System (2013).
[Res./ Home]: Usha Apartment- # N 9/ 87 - D 41 (Flat 101-102), Lane No. 5, Janaki Nagar Colony (near Hanuman Mandir), BLW Flyover – Badi Patia Road, PO: Bazardiha, Varanasi, UP 221106. INDIA
Mobile-WhatsApp: [+091]- 98381 19474. Tel.-LL: [+091]-542-2985281.
Email: ranapbs@gmail.com ; rana.RWYC.india@gmail.com ;
web: https://bhu-in.academia.edu/RanaPBSINGH/Papers/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Prof_Rana_Singh/publications http://www.svabhinava.org/HinduCivilization/RanaPBSingh/ https://www.facebook.com/rana.singh.507027,
ORCID- https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6031-9086 ; rana.singh.507027@facebook.com
UPDATED: 01 February 2022.

The opportunity for a private person to place a statue in the context of a temple was limited even during the Ramesside period, where statues of officials in temples were very common. In most cases, the permission of the king himself or of one of his powerful favourites was the door opener to the entrance into sacred space. This was a clear case of “divergence” in the context of the temple. Once there and be placed on sacred ground, such statues could participate in the offerings for the god and stood through their type, texts and images in a kind of correspondence with their surrounding space.
With selected examples of such personal monuments of early Ramesside officials, the overall topic “synergy and divergence” will be discussed. Moreover, some light on the strategies of their owners’ or donors’ private practice will be set. Thus, cases of complex systems of donation, social interactions such as patronage and performance will emerged.

This article aims at giving an overall view of the real and mythical topography of the Abaton of Biggeh, which housed a relic, the left leg of the God Osiris, in connection with the rituals. After a geographical and archaeological presentation, I will stress in particular the different species of trees growing on and around the Abaton. A new French translation will be provided, with commentary, of the Abaton Decree, in relation to the depictions on the Gate of Hadrian in the temple of Philae. A discussion of all the classical sources in chronological order will follow, in order to draw comparisons with the Egyptian sources. Lastly, the possible location and spatial organization of the Abaton in comparison with other sacred mounds will be addressed.

This article aims to present an evaluation about the cults and the sanctuaries in the Archaic and Classical Periods in vicinity of the Propontis which is located in the northwest of Anatolia. The lands around the Propontis are known as Thrakia and Troas, Mysia, Bithynia or Hellepontine Phrygia in the Archaic and Classical Periods. Initially, ethnical diversity and settlement patterns of the region have been introduced. Following the introduction, the sanctuaries around the Propontis and related findings are analysed. Within the scope of the study, not only ancient sources but also published artefacts which could have been related to a sanctuary have been assessed. In conclusion, inferences about the diversity of cults around the Propontis and the features of sanctuaries in the Archaic and Classical Periods, were tried to be carried out.

Even while the Earth sleeps, we travel Khalil Gibran Humanity's insatiable thirst for travel has been recorded across the disciplinary spectrum for millennia, from historical accounts of the brave explores of our past, to anthropological, zoological, and botanical records of seemingly exotic worlds and cultures. Artists, poets, writers sought to capture in their output the breath-takingness of these new worlds for others' delight, becoming the storytellers of these faraway lands. Once reserved for the elite, the nomadic, or the bellicose wishing to conquer new terrain, travel now lies much more within our reach, making us all the storytellers of our journeying. Odysseys get narrated through our blogs, our online reviews, our Facebook stories, and our Instagram feeds, as we share the journeys we take through life for all to see.

In this chapter, I consider the significance of hermeneutics for architecture. I begin by locating some key concerns that a hermeneutics of buildings and other architectural works entails. As a heuristic context for discussing these concerns, I draw on comparative-religion scholar Lindsay Jones’ The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture, a two-volume work that is perhaps the most exhaustive recent effort to identify the diverse, multi-dimensioned ways in which an “architectural hermeneutics” might proceed (Jones 2000).
        I identify two major research dilemmas toward which Jones’ work points: first, the contentious question of whether buildings-in-themselves, as opposed to the personal, social, and cultural experiences and meanings of those buildings, can be examined hermeneutically; and, second, the difficult matter of interpretive trustworthiness. If, in other words, one assumes that buildings evoke divergent meanings for different experiencers and interpreters, how is he or she to evaluate the relative accuracy and validity of competing interpretations?
        As evidence of a hermeneutic approach that might circumvent these two interpretive concerns, I discuss two significant efforts to generate what might be called a hermeneutics of the language of architecture: first, philosopher Karsten Harries’ language of natural symbols; and, second, architect Thomas Thiis-Evensen’s language of architectural archetypes. I consider the relative interpretive power of these two hermeneutic languages to describe accurately and non-arbitrarily the lived experience of “buildings-in-themselves.”

This thesis is an investigation into the role of Islamic Calligraphy at houses as a cultural agent in the everyday life of city dwellers in Istanbul and Anatolian territories in late Ottoman period. How do such inscriptions mean? To whom? How do they convey the meaning to the audience? Are they placed for attributing a sacral character to houses or have the houses already acquired the sacred status in Muslim world? Are they placed only for ornamental and decorative purposes or part of a
consumption pattern? Are they serving to public as a reminder of ethic or religious rules to improve moral or are they placed for apotropaic purposes. In my thesis, I claim that the Islamic calligraphy has connoted meaning and calligraphic panels at houses are used for mostly apotropaic purposes which means that they are supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck. The thesis covers
an interpretive research study, the objective of which is to identify the pattern of calligraphic panels in houses. Among the 1121 calligraphic panels examined, a sampling group of 208 panels are formed and 128 samples are identified as “apotropaic” that stands for asking God’s mercy, protection and generosity. The theoretical framework of the thesis is enriched by cultural, sociological and phenomenological perspectives.

Paper presented to Science of the Pacific Island People Conference, 5-12 July 1992, University of the South pacific, Suva, Fiji. It looks at historical structural violence against Hawaiians, at a conceptual models of relationships, explores religious beliefs, spiritual reals, sacred norms, and Hawaiian practices too then describe sacred sites, localities and structures.  It uses the concept of the pu'uhonua, the Hawaiian ancient place of refuge as a metaphor to look community based management issues for protecting Hawaiian sanctuaries. Eventually edited and published in a book.

Studies on the religion of pre-Christian Slavs belong to the most fascinating, but also ungrateful scientific works. Fascinating, because even a small success is a huge step forward in our knowledge about primirdial worldwiev of our ancestors, ungrateful because of the poorness of the  data base we have to our disposal. 
The development of the methodology of excavation research, the interdisciplinary course of their conduct, and finally the publication of complete archival documentation of archaeological sites allow for an attempt to verify or maintain the former views on the religion of pagan Slavs. The progress of research also requires the inclusion of the latest excavation materials, trends, conclusions, and in some cases reference to sources only exceptionally used in the context of pagan worship so far.
The effect of these efforts I am pleased put on the reader's hand

Download the nice published version at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-013-9182-7

Online 2013; in print 2015.  This paper reviews something of the state of research on standing stone monuments in Scotland. It also offers a précis of the methodology and results of the first stage of a research project on standing stones in western Scotland. This stage sought to establish, more empirically than the majority of studies done to date, the nature of standing stone sites’ connection to specific astronomical phenomena and to establish a firmer understanding of standing stones as a group phenomenon across the region. This is followed by a focused case-study of six standing stone monuments of the inner Hebridean islands of Coll and Tiree to uncover the relationships between themselves, the landscape and astronomical bodies.

Two significant accomplishments of this landscape project are: (i) the use of statistical applications to ensure plausible conclusions and (ii) the development and use of accurate three dimensional landscape and astronomical reconstructions as seen by the naked eye.  Using statistics, the study analyses 125 sites across western Scotland. The 3-D modelling focuses upon the application of visual engagement. This development considers the creation of the visual experience of made and non-made objects in the landscape by past people, and through this method we observe their constructional choices (Higginbottom, 2003: passism, especially Chapter 12; Higginbottom 2005; Barrett and Ko, 2009, p287).

Tourists and pilgrims from across Turkey and around the world flock to the tomb of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), one of the greatest poets and Sufi masters in Islam. Since 1925, the Turkish government has relentlessly struggled to control Islamic influences in society and to channel people’s devotion to the memory of Kemal Ataturk (d. 1938) and his secular ideology. This article argues that by restructuring the layout and presentation of the tomb complex of Rumi, and putting the sacred space through the process of museumification, the Turkish state has attempted to regulate the place in order to control people’s experience of the sacred. The Museum functions simultaneously as a sacred place and a tourist site and the role of visitors as pilgrims and tourists is ambiguous. This article examines the history and politics of the space in order to illustrate how it functions as a site of contestation and how visitors act as important agents in the construction of the space’s meaning.

In this article, an assumption has been made that in power centres, settlement concentrationwas accompanied by accumulation of goods, capital and weapons. Within the Przeworsk culture, the areain question encompassed the basins of the Prosna and the Warta. It remains uncertain if the area can beassociated with the so-called Lugii Grove, a centre of political and religious power described by Tacitus.

People learn to think symbolically with the geography, culture and religion they are born with. The way of thinking that is constantly conveyed in social memory also helps to form the traditional worldview; cultures, myths and religions come from here. It is thought that religion and magical processes are intertwined because of the way of symbolic thinking. For this reason, the emergence of sacred places is related to religion and magic.
The description of the sacred place becomes myth and ritual, the unexplained places die. The narrative of the place is bidirectional: Menakıb, miraculous, legend, memorat or personal memories constitute myth; visit, sacrifice, tawaf, wish and concretisation, food sharing, etc. behaviors constitute rituals. Expression and motion feed each other and ensure the continuity of the sacred space. It is a sacred space design that a grave is under a juniper, a place near the fountain, a place of worship, sacrifice and food. Rituals have a psychological function on the aspirant. Psychologically, rituals can help identify the identity of a group or section and form a group or segment. But the more basic function of the ritual is to give the world an order that will remain meaningless if it is not rituals.
In this study, it will be considered as “concretisation" the action of the tales by drawing, writing, making paper or other material in the form of a sample, depending on the expertise of the tombs and deposits, to the action. The ritual seen in sacred places will be classified. This classification will be made according to the means and functions in the rituals. In this context, the sympathetic magic left from James Frazer will be discussed in the context of concretisation. The data compiled with fieldwork will be evaluated with functional theory in the context of concretisation and will be supported with visuals.

Skandapurāṇa 167 is concerned with a description of Śaiva sacred sites and may be dated to the latter half of the 6th or first half of the 7th century. As such it is a very valuable source for the history and topography of early Saivism. In addition it contains an account of the origins of the Pasupata movement in its descriptions of Karohana, the site of Siva's descent as Lakulisa.
The present volume contains a critical edition of two different versions of Skandapurāṇa 167, one transmitted in early Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts, another transmitted in two later recensions styled Ambikakhanda and Revakhanda. The latter version has never been published before and opens up new perspectives for the study of the transmission of Puranic literature and the historical development of Śaivism. The introduction deals with the sacred topography of Śaivism, the early Pasupata movement and editorial principles. The editions are preceded by an English synopsis and are accompanied by an extensive philological and historical commentary.

In the spring of 1583, Nicolò Cassich was killed in the field church in Murvica located in the vicinity of the town of Pag. Cassich had been banished in 1579 on the charge of having posted a libello famoso (defamatory leaflet) against a representative of Venice to the island. The investigation launched by the local authorities promptly revealed that the killing had been carried out by Zuanne Pastorcich, himself a bandit, who intended to avail himself of the benefits provided by law and request his release from the banishment penalty. To that end, Pastorcich presented the head of the bandit on the pietra del bando in the town square, so that it could be identified by some witnesses, who readily made themselves available. But as the authorities proceeded with such identification, a woman stepped out from the crowd that had flooded the square. She removed Cassich’s head from the stone and took it to the main church in town. The authorities’ efforts to recover it were futile, and the incident evinced that the killing of Nicolò Cassich in that small church had created a deep rift within the community. And although Pastorcich eventually obtained the bounty he had claimed, the killing was deemed a genuine desecration, and that sacred place was interdicted from divine worship for several years.

Nella primavera del 1583 Nicolò Cassich venne ucciso nella chiesa campestre di Murvica, posta nelle vicinanze della città di Pago. Il Cassich era stato bandito  nel 1579 con l’accusa di aver affisso un libello famoso contro il rappresentante veneziano dell’isola. Il processo avviato dalle autorità locali rivelò da subito che l’uccisione era avvenuta ad opera di Zuanne Pastorcich, pure bandito, il quale, avvalendosi dei benefici previsti dalle leggi, intendeva ottenere la propria liberazione.
A tal fine egli presentò la testa del bandito nella piazza della città, perché fosse identificata da alcuni testimoni, resisi presto disponibili. In realtà, mentre le autorità procedevano a tale riconoscimento, dalla folla accorsa numerosa in piazza, si staccò una donna, che sottrasse la testa del Cassich, portandola con sé sino alla chiesa principale della città. A nulla valsero i tentativi delle autorità di recuperarla, in quanto l’episodio dimostrò come l’uccisione di Nicolò Cassich in quella piccola chiesa avesse creato una forte spaccatura all’interno della comunità. E, nonostante il Pastorcich ottenesse infine i premi richiesti, l’uccisione venne considerata come una vera e propria profanazione; e quel luogo sacro fu interdetto per alcuni anni al culto divino.

Άρθρο του Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη στο περιοδικό Τρίτο Μάτι, 70 (Ιούνιος 1998), σελ. 28-34

Article by Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis in the monthly review Trito Mati (Third Eye), 70 (June 1998), p. 28-34

First published online as PDF on 20th June 2021 here:
https://profmegalommatistextsingreek.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/η-ιερή-γεωγραφία-της-ελλάδας/