Is There An ‘Underworld' Under The Earth?

[Comfortably Numb]

IS THERE AN ‘UNDERWORLD’ UNDER THE EARTH, ACCORDING TO A NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND?

archaeology-world.com
23 June, 2001

Excavations at the Yazlkaya Rock Temple in Turkey, which began over 200 years ago, have uncovered an ancient calendar and a map of the cosmos, both of which provide fascinating evidence.

The paintings in the strange stone carvings, which were probably made about 3,200 years ago, include details of an “underworld” sitting beneath the earth.

In the temple, discovered by a French archaeologist and historian Charles Texier as early as 1834, limestone carvings depicting more than 90 different figures, including animals, monsters and gods, have been found.

(...)

https://archaeology-world.com/is-th...earth-according-to-a-new-archaeological-find/

 

[GNC]

Doesn't sound very new if it's two decades old. And if it is two decades old, with no further news, then the answer may be "No".

 

[Nosmo King]

IS THERE AN ‘UNDERWORLD’ UNDER THE EARTH, ACCORDING TO A NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND?

archaeology-world.com
23 June, 2001

Excavations at the Yazlkaya Rock Temple in Turkey, which began over 200 years ago, have uncovered an ancient calendar and a map of the cosmos, both of which provide fascinating evidence.

The paintings in the strange stone carvings, which were probably made about 3,200 years ago, include details of an “underworld” sitting beneath the earth.

In the temple, discovered by a French archaeologist and historian Charles Texier as early as 1834, limestone carvings depicting more than 90 different figures, including animals, monsters and gods, have been found.

(...)

https://archaeology-world.com/is-th...earth-according-to-a-new-archaeological-find/

Im pretty sure a lot ancient civilizations made depictions of an 'underworld', the ancient Greek 'Hades', the Roman 'Orcus' the Egyptian 'Duat' to name a few.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Im pretty sure a lot ancient civilizations made depictions of an 'underworld', the ancient Greek 'Hades', the Roman 'Orcus' the Egyptian 'Duat' to name a few.

Also the druids.

There's an interesting posting re same, here:

Can Druids see into the underworld?

https://www.quora.com/Can-Druids-see-into-the-underworld?top_ans=71370664

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Doesn't sound very new if it's two decades old. And if it is two decades old, with no further news, then the answer may be "No".

For sure - such an intriguing subject and there's a further, related article to hand:

3200-year-old shrine in Turkey may be an ancient view of the cosmos

By Michael Marshall

New Scientist
16 June 2021

A shrine built more than 3000 years ago in what is now Turkey may be a symbolic representation of the cosmos, according to a new interpretation.

It has now been suggested that the elite of the Hittite society, an empire that dominated what is now Turkey between 1700 and 1100 BC until it was destroyed, created the Yazılıkaya shrine to embody their ideas about how the universe was organised.

Yazılıkaya contains many images in rock relief, and the researchers behind the new interpretation argue that these have symbolic meanings relating to the underworld, earth and sky, as well as to cycles of nature like the seasons.

“There are many connotations with the names of the deities and the arrangements and groups, and so in retrospect it’s pretty easy to figure it out,” says Eberhard Zangger, president of Luwian Studies, an international non-profit foundation. “But we worked on it for seven years.”

“They may be onto something,” says Ian Rutherford at the University of Reading in the UK. “I’m not convinced of all the details, but very interested in the whole thing.”

(...)

“As an idea, it’s not far-fetched,” says Efrosyni Boutsikas at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. Other cultures, ranging from nearby Mesopotamia to distant Mesoamerica, used religious monuments to link terrestrial life with the wider universe. “Obviously that makes sense, because that’s exactly what religion does. It addresses universal concerns and the place of the people in the world,” she says.

However, Boutsikas is concerned that many of the team’s interpretations of the images aren’t based on Hittite texts, which say little about astronomy. Instead, the researchers have often used texts from Mesopotamian societies, which influenced the Hittites but were also distinct. She says the evidence would be stronger if similar links between gods and astronomy could be found at other Hittite sites.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ne...key-may-be-an-ancient-view-of-the-cosmos/amp/

 

[EnolaGaia]

Excavations at the Yazlkaya Rock Temple in Turkey, which began over 200 years ago, have uncovered an ancient calendar and a map of the cosmos, both of which provide fascinating evidence.
The paintings in the strange stone carvings, which were probably made about 3,200 years ago, include details of an “underworld” sitting beneath the earth.

It's important to understand that the "underworld" represented (or merely implied) is itself a component of the Hittite cosmology, and this underworld's role is largely - but not uniquely - linked to astronomical, calendric, and timekeeping operations.

The Yazılıkaya complex has two major sections - Chamber A and Chamber B. The implied underworld associations are drawn with respect to Chamber B.

The Hittite cosmology (like others in the region) was basically organized in 3 tiers or levels - sky, earth / ground, and underworld / netherworld. The first concerned the daily / nightly stage upon which the sun, moon and stars progressed from the eastern to western horizons. The Yazılıkaya alignments focused on the northern celestial pole, indicating the cyclical nature of these sky displays was well known.

In the course of these cycles the heavenly bodies had to get from the western back to the eastern horizon. The earth level / ground level was treated as planar and fixed, with the sky rotating around / over it. This meant there was an unseen area or realm beneath the visible ground where celestial objects completed their circular paths.

This was the astronomical aspect of the purported underworld - the place of passage allowing these bodies to circle back to their places of entrance into visibility. This astronomical aspect of the underworld was its primary significance.

The secondary significance of this purported underworld was as a haven for certain deities (etc.) and the place where the dead went. At Yazılıkaya this secondary aspect of the underworld is implied by certain features of Chamber B that insinuate connections to a mortuary cult for one or more previous kings.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Doesn't sound very new if it's two decades old. And if it is two decades old, with no further news ...

One has to check the literature to see what's really new here ...

The archeo-astronomical analysis of Yazılıkaya is relatively new, and it's been presented in two substantial online documents. Part 1 was published in 2019, and Part 2 has just been published.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for Part 1. This document is almost wholly focused on astronomical aspects of the Yazılıkaya complex, focusing on Chamber A. This document only mentions the underworld in passing.

---

Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion: An Investigation of the Rock Sanctuary Yazılıkaya
Eberhard Zangger
Rita Gautschy
JSA 5.1 (2019) 5–38
ISSN (print) 2055-348X / ISSN (online) 2055-3498

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.37641

Abstract:
Regular celestial events assumed remarkable significance for the cultic rituals of the Hittite civilisation (c. 1600–1180 BC) in central Asia Minor. Numerous texts found at the capital Ḫattuša relate to solar deities and celestial divination reminiscent of Old Babylonian astro- nomical and astrological practices. Here we suggest that the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, which was considered one of the holiest places in the Hittite kingdom, had a calendrical function. It contains more than 90 rock-cut reliefs, dating to the second half of the thirteenth century BC, of deities, humans, animals and mythical figures. The reliefs in Chamber A are arranged in groups to mark the days, synodic months and solar years. Using this system, the Hittite priests were able to determine when additional months were required to keep lunar and solar years aligned. The astronomical and astrological interpretation of Yazılıkaya serves as a point of departure for a brief re-examination of celestial aspects in Hittite religion.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://edoc.unibas.ch/74462/1/20200115123450_5e1ef8dac0d3c.pdf

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for Part 2. This 2021 document is the really new stuff and the only place where the underworld aspects are discussed to any extent.

---

Zangger, E., Krupp, E., Demirel, S., & Gautschy, R. (2021).
Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion, Part 2: Cosmic Symbolism at Yazilikaya.
Journal of Skyscape Archaeology.

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.17829

Abstract
Evidence of systematic astronomical observation and the impact of celestial knowledge on culture is plentiful in the Bronze Age societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Europe. An interest in astral phenomena is also reflected in Hittite documents, architecture and art. The rock-cut reliefs of 64 deities in the main chamber of Yazilikaya, a Hittite rock sanctuary associated with Hattusa, the Hittite capital in central Anatolia, can be broken into groups marking days, synodic months and solar years. Here, we suggest that the sanctuary in its entirety represents a symbolic image of the cosmos, including its static levels (earth, sky, underworld) and the cyclical processes of renewal and rebirth (day/night, lunar phases, summer/winter). Static levels and celestial cyclicities are emphasised throughout the sanctuary – every single relief relates to this system. We interpret the central panel with the supreme deities, at the far north end of Chamber A, as a reference to the northern stars, the circumpolar realm and the world axis. Chamber B seems to symbolise the netherworld.

SOURCE: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JSA/article/view/17829

FULL DOCUMENT (ADVANCE COPY): https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JSA/article/view/17829/21552

 

[Naughty_Felid]

It's important to understand that the "underworld" represented (or merely implied) is itself a component of the Hittite cosmology, and this underworld's role is largely - but not uniquely - linked to astronomical, calendric, and timekeeping operations.

The Yazılıkaya complex has two major sections - Chamber A and Chamber B. The implied underworld associations are drawn with respect to Chamber B.

The Hittite cosmology (like others in the region) was basically organized in 3 tiers or levels - sky, earth / ground, and underworld / netherworld. The first concerned the daily / nightly stage upon which the sun, moon and stars progressed from the eastern to western horizons. The Yazılıkaya alignments focused on the northern celestial pole, indicating the cyclical nature of these sky displays was well known.

In the course of these cycles the heavenly bodies had to get from the western back to the eastern horizon. The earth level / ground level was treated as planar and fixed, with the sky rotating around / over it. This meant there was an unseen area or realm beneath the visible ground where celestial objects completed their circular paths.

This was the astronomical aspect of the purported underworld - the place of passage allowing these bodies to circle back to their places of entrance into visibility. This astronomical aspect of the underworld was its primary significance.

The secondary significance of this purported underworld was as a haven for certain deities (etc.) and the place where the dead went. At Yazılıkaya this secondary aspect of the underworld is implied by certain features of Chamber B that insinuate connections to a mortuary cult for one or more previous kings.

I came here to say the same thing

 

[Naughty_Felid]

It's important to understand that the "underworld" represented (or merely implied) is itself a component of the Hittite cosmology, and this underworld's role is largely - but not uniquely - linked to astronomical, calendric, and timekeeping operations.

The Yazılıkaya complex has two major sections - Chamber A and Chamber B. The implied underworld associations are drawn with respect to Chamber B.

The Hittite cosmology (like others in the region) was basically organized in 3 tiers or levels - sky, earth / ground, and underworld / netherworld. The first concerned the daily / nightly stage upon which the sun, moon and stars progressed from the eastern to western horizons. The Yazılıkaya alignments focused on the northern celestial pole, indicating the cyclical nature of these sky displays was well known.

In the course of these cycles the heavenly bodies had to get from the western back to the eastern horizon. The earth level / ground level was treated as planar and fixed, with the sky rotating around / over it. This meant there was an unseen area or realm beneath the visible ground where celestial objects completed their circular paths.

This was the astronomical aspect of the purported underworld - the place of passage allowing these bodies to circle back to their places of entrance into visibility. This astronomical aspect of the underworld was its primary significance.

The secondary significance of this purported underworld was as a haven for certain deities (etc.) and the place where the dead went. At Yazılıkaya this secondary aspect of the underworld is implied by certain features of Chamber B that insinuate connections to a mortuary cult for one or more previous kings.

Joking aside. Those deep dark caverns in South America where people risked everything to place their dead in completely subterranean places blows my mind - no modern breathing gear, primitive lights, etc.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Those deep dark caverns in South America where people risked everything to place their dead in completely subterranean places blows my mind...

Not something I am personally familiar with and investigating further, have come across the following.

A brief look through and seems both related and interesting?

Shall duly watch this later.

Agartha, the Hidden civilization of Inner Earth

 

[EnolaGaia]

Agartha and other hollow earth realms are discussed in this other thread:

Hollow Earth / Inner Earth (Agartha, Etc.)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/hollow-earth-inner-earth-agartha-etc.33149/

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Agartha and other hollow earth realms are discussed in this other thread:

Do you know how much time I personally spend checking for existing threads and sometimes can't find it!

That aside, once again your seemingly encyclopedic, arcane wisdom on all matters Fortean and assistance therein is appreciated.

I was thinking you must have a personal home study, something like this:

Alternatively, though...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Have you been snooping about in my house?

 

[Kondoru]

Yes, get out of mine too.