Cassiopeia
the
Ethiopian Queen
(CNN)It was the Queen of Sheba that first drew
Louise Schofield -- an archaeologist and former curator at the British Museum
-- to the Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia. She'd heard tell of a 20-foot
stone stele carved with an inscription and a symbol often linked to the
biblical queen: a sun and crescent moon."The story of the Queen of Sheba
has a central place in the heart of all Ethiopians, so I became interested in
the story myself," she recalls (Sheba is thought to be located in parts of
Ethiopia). It was this initial visit that ultimately led her to discover the
2,000-year-old remains of a character she fondly refers to as "sleeping
beauty." The grave was discovered at the stone stele, in an area that was
once part of the ancient kingdom of Aksum, which today encompasses Ethiopia and
Eritrea. Inside, Schofield's team found the skeleton of a woman posed in a
resting position, with her chin laid gently on one hand. A Roman-era bronze
mirror was placed before her face. The corpse was surrounded with glass vessels
(to catch the tears of the dead), as well as a bronze cosmetics spoon and a
lump of kohl eyeliner. "She must have been very wealthy, and probably
well-loved to be placed in this position, and judging by all the items of
finery around her," surmised Schofield. June 15, 2015 http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/15/africa/sleeping-beauty-2000-year-old-remains/index.html
The news of
the discovery of the grave of the
"sleeping beauty" comes to in the Waning Crescent Moon phase. A chart for
the Moon phase at Aksum, Ethiopia is shown here. The Moon [6ta] is conjunct
the star Caph[5ta], beta
Cassiopeia in the constellation of the beautiful Queen who is often depicted
adorning herself [1].
"From
Cassiope come the enhancement of beauty and devices for adorning the body: from
gold has been sought the means to give grace to the appearance; precious stones
have been spread over head, neck, and hands and golden chains have shone on
snow-white feet. …" [Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.343.]
A T-square comprising Mercury-Neptune- Saturn
straddles the horizon. Here Neptune
(which is sextile the Moon) is
conjunct stars in Aquarius’ urn. To the
Chinese, these stars formed the asterism Fan-Mou,
The Tombs. In
addition on the descendant [4sa] is the star Yed Posterior, epsilon
Ophiuchus. In an early Euphratean Tablet
it was referred to as Mulu-Bat, “Man-of-Death” associated with corpses
and disease.
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