M.J. Rose

The character Jac L’Etoile in The Book of Lost Fragrances studies mythology – it is her life’s work to find the truth behind myths. She would be extremely interested in the following article from the Sunday Review:

If Achilles Used Facebook…
By PADRAIG MAC CARRON

WHEN we pick up a mythological text like “The Iliad” or “Beowulf,” we like to imagine that the societies they describe existed. Even if the stories are fiction, we believe that they tell us something about ancient Greece or the Anglo-Saxons, and that some of the characters and events were based on reality.

Archaeological evidence suggests that at least some of the societies and events in such stories did exist. But is there other evidence, lurking perhaps within the ancient texts themselves?…

For the complete piece click here.

The Shroud of Turin is one of the most fascinating objects on earth, and it received quite a bit of attention recently after Italian scientists suggested its authenticity…

Shroud Of Turin, Jesus’ Proposed Burial Cloth, Is Authentic, Italian Study Suggests

(HuffPost)

“A series of experiments conducted by Italian researchers indicate the Shroud of Turin is likely authentic, but the team has not yet reached a definite conclusion.

Decades of research on Jesus’ proposed burial cloth have revealed an array of conflicting ideas surrounding the shroud’s authenticity. However, researchers from Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development believe their findings undermine previous theories that the shroud was faked in the medieval period, the Telegraph reports. The new claim seems to be stirring controversy again, as many point to previous research to the contrary.

Last year scientists were able to replicate marks on the cloth using highly advanced ultraviolet techniques that weren’t available 2,000 years ago — or during the medieval times, for that matter.

Research in the 1980s suggests the image was “forged” on the cloth between 1260 and 1390, but scientists have determined the hypothesis was based on testing material from a patch likely used to to repair the cloth after a fire, the BBC reports.

Since the shroud and “all its facets” still cannot be replicated using today’s top-notch technology, researchers suggest it is impossible that the original image could have been created in either period….”

For the compete piece, and a video, click here.

Our moon is a true enigma that baffles even modern astronomers –

How The Moon Was Born

world-mysteries.com

“How scientists believe our moon came into existence.

Several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moon’s formation 4.527 ± 0.010 billion years ago, some 30–50 million years after the origin of the Solar System. These included the fission of the Moon from the Earth’s crust through centrifugal force, which would require too great an initial spin of the Earth, the gravitational capture of a pre-formed Moon, which would require an unfeasibly extended atmosphere of the Earth to dissipate the energy of the passing Moon, and the co-formation of the Earth and the Moon together in the primordial accretion disk, which does not explain the depletion of metallic iron in the Moon. These hypotheses also cannot account for the high angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system…”

So, what really happened? And how did the ancient Sumerians know so much about it thousands of years ago? Read the complete article here.

An idea! If You Blog:  Why not write a post about the mysteries you have encountered recently?  Send a trackback to this blog and leave a comment below so we can share the mystery!

This post was written by Emily, co-editor of the blog.