The pharaoh’s daughter who was the mother of all Scots September 30, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts, Books, Culture.comments closed
“From various writings of ancient chroniclers we deduce that the nation of the Scots is of ancient stock, taking its first beginning from the Greeks and those of the Egyptians.”
- Walter Bower, Scotichronicon
WALTER Bower wrote his compendium of Scottish history, Scotichronicon, in the 1440s. This sweeping Latin text aimed to set down the history of the Scottish people from the earliest times – and by so doing to show what race of people we were.
He referenced his chronicle from ancient texts and oral history. What he recorded was astounding.
According to Bower, the Scottish people were not an amalgam of Picts, Scots and other European peoples, but were in fact Egyptians, who could trace their ancestry directly back to a pharaoh’s daughter and her husband, a Greek king.
The queen’s name was Scota – from where comes the name Scotland. The Greek king was Gaythelos – hence Gaelic, and their son was known as Hiber – which gives us Hibernia.
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Researchers cast new light on old map September 30, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology.comments closed
This week saw the launch in Switzerland of a new edition of a book that inspired Christopher Columbus and helped revolutionise the art of map-making.
When Columbus was pondering how to reach Cathay, he had in his hands a world map drawn by the first century Greek geographer Ptolemy – a map which showed clearly that the world was round.
The edition of Ptolemy’s Geography is the work of an international team of researchers led by Bern University professors Alfred Stückelberger and Gerd Grasshoff.
They were given unique access to possibly the oldest existing copy of the work, preserved in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. It was in such poor condition that it took the team, backed by the Swiss embassy, two years of negotiation with the Turkish authorities before they gained permission to study it.
Read this article > Ptolemy’s maps depicted a world that was round (Swiss National …
European schools and the internet > study September 30, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Internet.comments closed
Almost all schools in the European Union have access to the internet and just over two-thirds have high-speed, broadband connections, the European Commission said Friday.
However, it said the broadband picture is mixed across the 25 EU nations, ranging from 90 percent of schools in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Estonia and Malta to under 35 percent in Greece, Poland, Cyprus, and Lithuania.
By comparison, 95 percent of US public schools have a broadband connection, said the survey that assessed the use of information technologies in European schools. “Europe is starting to reap the benefits of broadband at schools where the foundations are laid for a knowledge-based society,” Viviane Reding, the EU Information Society Commissioner said in a statement.
