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The Land of the Dead: 'The other shore'.
The idea of
a 'land of the dead' is a concept which appears in myths and traditions
from various cultures around the ancient world. Without a
modern equivalent, mainstream religions today are unable to
offer anything with which to compare, the basic
difference being that the land of the dead was then believed
to be a physical
place; a land that mortals could travel to and from, visit and
talk to the dead, even (almost) bringing them back in the
case of Orpheus and his wife. It has been said that we have
learnt more from archaeology about the rituals of death than
we have of the living, but it is only recently that we have
been able to build a more accurate picture of the practices
involved.
Archaeological evidence supports the idea that our
relationship with the dead has changed considerably over
time with patterns emerging which suggest a transition from
an early belief system in which we likely inhabited the same landscape as the dead, living alongside them and sharing our thoughts and
daily routines with them, to one in which death becomes the
final act of the living, following which we are separated by
the definitive 'Valley of Death'.
The transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic appears to mark an
elaboration of these rituals, perhaps not unexpectedly as it
was also the start of a period of sustained human growth and
cultural development around the ancient world. The
separation between the lands of the living and the dead was
both a physical and imaginative process, with the last few thousand years
producing a variety of belief systems, most of which have
left behind such intimate relationships with the spirit
world effectively severing the connection between the living
and the dead.
The land of the
dead is mentioned in several important texts, not least of all, the
earliest known written story in human history; The Sumerian 'Epic
of Gilgamesh'. Other important literary works such as the
Egyptian 'Book of Thoth', and several Greek texts, most
famously 'The Odyssey' also describe journeys by
mortals to the realm of the dead. With the exception of the Egyptian
concept, the location of the land of the dead was considered to be
a physical, accessible place at the same time as being located almost
beyond the boundaries of the known, visible world, often existing
either underground or far out at sea, but one that could always be found by those who sought hard enough. Scholars have suggested influences from Near
Eastern mythology and literature in the Odyssey. In
particular, the substantial parallels between the Epic
of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey. Both Odysseus and
Gilgamesh are known for travelling to the ends of the earth, and
on their journeys go to the land of the dead. On his voyage to
the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by
Circe, a goddess who is the daughter of the sun-god Helios. Her
island, Aeaea, is located at the edges of the world, and seems
to have close associations with the sun. Like Odysseus,
Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach the land of the dead
from a divine helper: in this case, the goddess Siduri, who,
like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth. Her home
is also associated with the sun: Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's
house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt. Mashu, the high
mountain from which the sun comes into the sky. It is therefore argued that
the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the
edges of the earth are the result of the influence of the
Gilgamesh epic upon the Odyssey.
Archaeological Evidence.
While we
know that burial rituals have been practiced by humans for
over 300,000 years, early examples are few and far between,
and it was only around 50,000 years ago during the
transition from the middle to the Upper Palaeolithic that we
see an increase of evidence of burials with grave goods,
tools and the appearance of anthropomorphic images and cave
paintings, suggesting that humans in the Upper Palaeolithic
had begun to believe in supernatural beings and the
afterlife. (6)
While we know that burials did take place during the late
middle Palaeolithic period, numbers are limited to around
200 skeletons in all Europe.
This lack of burials or lack of apparent concern as to the
disposal of the remains does seem to suggest that there was
little or no thought as to any after life, however, even in the upper
Palaeolithic, c 30,000 BP, with 50% of burials showing signs
of red-ochre being sprinkled on the dead, it is recognised
that this serves no function either to the dead or the
living, echoing a ritualisation of the cycle of life/death,
and the worship of a living earth-mother.
The
earliest examples of a physical 'Land of the Dead' have
been tentatively suggested to be found in studies of cave usage in Palaeolithic times,
which tend to interpret human activates at cave sites either as
for ritual or domestic occupation. Britain's only Palaeolithic Cave art, in the
Hole at Creswell Crags appears to confirm this idea as it has
been suggested that 'the Nottingham side of the gorge on which
Church Hole is located can be interpreted as being 'different'
from the Derbyshire side with a 'land of the living'
(Derbyshire) and a 'land of the dead' (Nottinghamshire). Or in
Chamberlain's words, 'A domestic landscape versus a ritual
landscape'. (2)
Discoveries in Syria recently seem to support
this idea of transition, where a Neolithic landscape of
stone-circles and alignments has been dubbed the
Syrian 'Stonehenge'. "There is nothing that
seems to exhibit evidence of occupation - no
houses or occupation at all. This is unusual for
the Neolithic in that typically people lived
where they buried their dead and worshipped...
...As such it may reflect the
development of the concept of a 'land of the
dead' distinct from a 'land of the living' which
has been hypothesised for Neolithic ritual sites
in Europe".
(4)
Two recent archaeological discoveries in Britain
also seem to reflect this change in
particular, perhaps showing the very time of
transition from living alongside the
dead, to when the rituals of both life and
death became more elaborate, resulting in the
creation of specific landscapes which for
sake of a better term can be seen as having
functioned as physical portals to the spirit
world. These 'civil' places of sending were
clearly important to the Neolithic peoples,
who invested great amounts of time and
energy into building several vast 'funerary'
or 'ritual' complexes around the western
coast of Europe and the Mediterranean.
(European
Neolithic Complexes)
Recent
archaeology on the Orkneys has uncovered a vast
'ritual' complex, which has been proposed to have
functioned as a
physical portal between the 'land of the living'
and
the 'land of the dead'. Already famous for
structures such as Maes Howe and Brodgar, the
Orkneys is now being recognised as a potential
'centre' of activity in the Neolithic following
the discovery of the 'Ness
of Brodgar', which outshines all other
structures on the islands in its scale and
potential significance. The complex stands on a
long promontory of land between two differing
landscapes and the location, design and finds
from the site have made it clear that "This wasn't a settlement or
a place for the living"
to archaeologists such as Professor
Colin Richards of Manchester
University.
(5)
Artists Impression of The Ness of Brodgar,
Orkney Islands, Scotland.
For a farming
community of a few thousand people to create
such edifices suggests that the Ness of Brodgar
was of profound importance. Archaeologists have
found that many of the stone mace heads (hard,
polished, holed stones) that litter the site had
been broken in two in exactly the same place.
"We have found evidence of this at other sites,"
says Richards. "It may be that relatives broke
them in two at a funeral, leaving one part with
the dead and one with family as a memorial to
the dead. This was a place concerned with death
and the deceased, I believe." This unique
combination of natural and manmade Orcadian
landscape was utilised for over a thousand years
before being abandoned c. 2,100 BC, a fact which
suggests that regardless of its obscurity (or
perhaps because of it), the significance of this
specific location was known far beyond the
Orkney islands.
(More
about the Orkneys)
In southern England a
similar landscape is being
realised in Wiltshire, home
to Stonehenge, Silbury hill
and Avebury, to name but a
few sites in the area.
Recent archaeology on both
the Stonehenge monument and
nearby Durrington Walls has
led to the suggestion that
the two are
complimentary structures,
both being part of a single
'ritual' process. Mike
Parker Pearson believes that
the immediate landscape
around the henge and timber
circle at Durrington Walls
represented life and a land
of the living, whilst
Stonehenge and the down
around it, encircled by
burial mounds, represented a
land of the dead. The two
were connected by the River
Avon and their respective
avenues with a ceremonial
procession route from one to
the other represented the
transition from life to
death. Work in the region
both at Stonehenge and
Avebury started at around
3,100 BC, the same time as
the Orcadian structures
began. The Radiocarbon dates
of approximately 2,600 BC
from Durrington are roughly
contemporary with the
earliest stone phase at
Stonehenge and fall in the
middle of the Orkneys
period. Perhaps not so
coincidentally, several of
the house plans at
Durrington walls have been
noted to be strongly
reminiscent of constructions
at Skara Brae and 'Grooved
ware' pottery found is
identical to that from the
Orcadian houses of the 3rd
millennium BC. Perhaps more
interesting are the
suggestions that the
dead/dying were brought to
this very spot each year
from across prehistoric
Europe, at a time Aubrey
burl calls the 'Dark age
of Prehistory' because
of the lack of funerary
remains at that period of
time.
(Stonehenge)
(Avebury) (Silbury
Hill) (West Kennet)
(Old Sarum)
Literary Sources:
Egyptian Land of the Dead: 'The book of Thoth'.
The symbolic
separation between the land of the dead and the living can be seen between
the ancient architecture on the eastern and western sides of the Nile, in fact,
the Nile itself can be seen as a representation of the river one crossed
after death to get to the 'Land of the Two Fields'. In
essence, the ancient Egyptians saw the east bank as "the land of the
living" since that's where the sun rose every morning. They built
their temples and homes on that side, and they thought of the west
bank as "the land of the dead" since that's where the sun sets. Many
of the tombs and funerary temples lay there.
Egyptian mythology was strongly orientated towards the idea that
the afterlife was a place to which the dead 'ba' or
'spirit' travelled with their belongings. The idea that physical objects could be carried across to the other side with the dead is
confirmed by the large number of burial goods placed alongside dead Pharaohs in their tombs and one story in particular. The 'Book of Thoth' is one of the most important ancient Egyptian texts.
It describes a journey by a father and son through the afterlife, following which they return to the land of the living. Importantly, the method of crossing over is
credited to the use of magic, suggesting that the land of the dead was not a physical place on earth, but one which was considered to be separate from the physical world we live in. The
story goes as follows: There
was once a father and son, both of regal lineage, who sat watching two funerals from the palace at Thebes. The son, a renowned child magician, watched both funerals carefully as the father, who was a Prince in the
palace, was in awe only of the rich man�s funeral. The rich man�s casket was shrouded in the finest Egyptian gold
and was attended by a plentitude of servants, neighbours, maidens, admirers and priests, all of
whom bore gifts and chanted prayers and pleasantries for the man to the gods.
Their prayers were for the man�s safe passage to the city of the dead. The
poor man�s funeral, on the other hand, was not quite as elaborate. It was
rather simple and only attended by those who truly loved him � his sons,
daughters-in-law, and his wife. As it was, the father
eventually made a comment. �When I die, I want my funeral to be like that of the rich
man!� he said. �I hope your funeral is like that of the poor man,� the son replied. To
this statement, the father was crushed. He could not believe that his own son
would want a poor man�s funeral for him.
Seeing his father�s anger, the boy tried
to explain what he meant to his father
and took him to the temple of Osiris:
When Setna had barred the doors,
Se-Osiris drew a magic circle round
them and round the statue of Osiris
and round the altar on which a small
fire of cedar wood was burning. Then
he threw a certain powder into the
flame upon the altar. Thrice he
threw the powder, and as he threw it
a ball of fire rose from the altar
and floated away. Then he spoke a
spell and ended with a great name of
power, a word at which the whole
temple rocked and the flame on the
altar leapt high, and then sank into
darkness for standing on either
side of the altar he saw himself and
his son Se-Osiris only suddenly he
knew that it was not his own body
and the boy's for the two bodies lay
in the shadows cast by these two
forms - the forms of their Ka's or
doubles, and above each Ka hovered a
tongue of flame which was its Khou
or spirit - and the clear, light of
the Khou served to show its Ka and
the dim form of the body from which
Ka and Khou were drawn.
They journey through the land of the dead; 'The three regions of the duat'...
...All these things and more the Ba of Se-Osiris showed to
the Ba of his father Setna; and at length he said, 'Now
you know why I wished your fate to be that of the poor
man and not of the rich man. For the rich man was he in
whose eye the pivot of the Third Door was turning - but
the poor man dwells for ever in the Fields of Peace,
clad in fine robes and owning all the offerings which
accompanied the evil rich man to his tomb.' Then the
two Ba spread their golden wings and flew back through
the night to Thebes. There they re-entered their bodies
which their Kas had been guarding in the Temple of
Osiris, and were able to return to their place as
ordinary, living father and child, in time to see the
sun rise beyond the eastern desert and turn the cliffs
of Western Thebes to pink and purple and gold as a new
day dawned over Egypt.
Gilgamesh and the Land
of the dead:
Earliest copy: Sumerian c.
2100 BC.
The Epic of
Gilgamesh has been found in several texts, the earliest dating
back to before 2,100 BC. In one version, which is
mainly an Akkadian translation of an earlier Sumerian
poem, Gilgamesh and the Netherworld (also known
as "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld" and
variants), Enkidu still lives, despite having been killed off earlier in
the epic. Because of this, its lack of
integration with the other tablets, and the fact
that it is almost a copy of an earlier version,
it has been referred to as an 'inorganic
appendage' to the epic.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that "its
purpose, though crudely handled, is to explain
to Gilgamesh (and the reader) the various fates
of the dead in the Afterlife" and in "an awkward
attempt to bring closure",
it both connects the Gilgamesh of the epic with
the Gilgamesh who is the King of the
Netherworld,
and is "a dramatic capstone whereby the twelve-tablet epic ends
on one and the same theme, that of "seeing" (= understanding,
discovery, etc.), with which it began. The story is as follows:
Gilgamesh complains to Enkidu that various of
his possessions (the tablet is unclear exactly
what � different translations include a drum and
a ball - shamnic items?) have fallen into the
underworld. Enkidu offers to bring them back.
Delighted, Gilgamesh tells Enkidu what he must
and must not do in the underworld if he is to
return. Enkidu does everything which he was told
not to do. The underworld keeps him. Gilgamesh
prays to the gods to give him back his friend. Enlil and
Suen don�t reply but
Ea and
Shamash decide to help. Shamash makes a
crack in the earth, and Enkidu's ghost jumps out
of it. Out of this the ghost of Enkidu rose
"like a wind," and the two friends embraced again. Gilgamesh
at once began eagerly to question the ghost about the
condition of the dead, but Enkidu was loath to answer, for he knew that what he must reveal
would only cause his friend dejection. But the last lines of
the Tablet tell the lot of those who have died in various
circumstances; though some who have been duly buried are in
better case, the fate of others who have none to pay them
honour is miserable, for they are reduced to feeding upon
dregs and scraps of food thrown into the street.
Odysseus and the Land of
the Dead:
Written c. 1,200 BC
(1).
In ancient Greek
mythology and religion the DOMOS HAIDOU or "realm of
Haides" was the land of the dead, the final resting
place for departed souls. It was also a place that
mortal men could physically travel to. The most famous
archaic description of the underworld is found in Book
11 of Homer's Odyssey, a chapter which the
ancients knew as The Nekyia or "Book of the
Dead." Here Odysseus sails across the western reaches of
the river Okeanos to the shore of Haides, where he
summons the ghosts of the dead with an offering of
blood, drawn a sacrificial black ram cast into a pit.
His description includes the netherworld lake Akheron
and its three rivers the Pyriphlegethon, Kokytos and
Styx, and mentions Minos, judge of the dead, and the
wicked condemned to eternal torment. The storyline runs
as follows:
Odysseus and his men go down to Hades to talk to
the spirit of Tiresias, on recommendation of
Circe. Odysseus goes to the River of Ocean and
makes sacrifices as Circe told him to do, so
as to attract the attention of the souls. The
first soul to appear to him is the soul of the
crew member who they had lost on the island of Aeaea, whom pleads Odysseus to go back and give
him a proper burial. The next soul that appears
to him is Tiresias, the blind prophet. He tells
Odysseus that Poseidon is punishing the Achaens
for blinding his son Polyphemus. He tells
Odysseus' fate, that he will return home reclaim
his palace and wife from the contemptible
suitors who have taken over his home. He warns
Odysseus not to touch the cattle on the island
of the sun god. Odysseus also speaks with his
mother. She updates him on what is happening in
Ithaca and tells him she died from grief of
waiting for him to return. He then leaves the
land of the dead, heading back to Aeaea to bury
his fallen man.
Other journeys to
the Underworld in Greek mythology:
The Land of the Living.
Death is one of the
great mysteries in life, one which we all share and one that none
can avoid. It binds us together and humbles us in our last moments.
It is difficult to imagine what the concept of death must be like
for an insect, a fish, or dog, but it should be remembered that it
wasn't more than a few million years ago that we ourselves were
proto-sentient creatures and nothing like the emotional,
imaginative, creative beings we are today. So what exactly is the
difference between us now and then.? It seems that the rituals of
human burial are only a fairly recent development and while we have
absolutely no idea how the dead were dealt with before this time, a
clear development of funerary rituals can be seen to have occurred
in the last 300,000 years. However, it is the inclusion of artefacts
such as tools, wealth, food, and other 'useful' items for the
afterlife that can be seen as the critical turning point in the
concept of a 'Land of the Dead', and one which seems to appear
around the ancient world.
The Neolithic, as
we have seen, marks a turning point in the way the dead were sent
off with large civil ceremonial landscapes and structures being
built through which it is suggested the dead were prepared for the
afterlife. Perhaps we no longer had any use for our ancestors, or we
simply had more important things to do, but written evidence from
the Middle-east and Greeks support the idea that following the
Neolithic, a common set of beliefs still existed which referred
physical land of the dead. It is also noticeable that there has been
no further reference to such a place since then, reflecting our
shifting ideas concerning the relationship between the living and
the dead.
It is of course
true that there are still indigenous cultures today such as the
aboriginal Australians or the Native American Indians, and many
other smaller, isolated tribes around the world which still share
their lives with their ancestors. The Australian
aboriginals in particular have a number of extant beliefs concerning
the land of the dead, many of which essentially weave the
living landscape with that of the dead, leading to a belief
that the spirits inhabit places familiar to them, and
alongside the living. (1)
But there seems to be no room for the dead in the hustle and bustle
of modern 'civilisation' who are despatched to the afterlife quickly
and clinically, and for whatever the reason; perhaps because it cant
be controlled or perhaps because we are simply afraid of it... the
dead have been effectively banished from modern life, and for as
long as that remains the case the land of the dead remains closed to
the living and with it the wisdom of all the ages.
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