Deep in the woods of Vermont, near the town of Brunswick, there are six small springs known, perhaps a little prosaically, as the Brunswick Springs. These springs aren’t really anything special to look at and amount to little more than a tiny waterfall, running into the Connecticut River in six different spots.

Each of these spots supposedly contains a different mineral: iron, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, bromide, and arsenic. So why did Ripley’s Believe it or Not call the springs their eighth wonder of the world in 1984?

Well, for centuries the local Abenaki population has believed the land surrounding the springs is sacred, and it’s said that the springs themselves have special healing properties. There are also rumors that the area is cursed and anyone who tries to build there is doomed. What torrid history has led to such claims and blames to what should rationally amount to nothing more than a natural phenomenon?

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The facts as presented in the Bible appear to be clear. Jesus Christ died on the cross on Good Friday, was taken down and entombed, but when the tomb was visited in the next couple of days it was found to be miraculously empty.

Then, as if to confirm Jesus had been brought back to life by divine power, he appeared to his disciples before finally ascending to heaven. And for those who have faith in the teachings of Christianity, this is sufficient to understand the miracle of the Resurrection.

However, in today’s pragmatic and secular world, for many this explanation falls short. There are many speculations and debates that reach for the most straightforward explanation: Jesus never really died during the crucifixion process.

The two main hypotheses that explain the appearance of Jesus after crucifixion are the Swoon Hypothesis and the Substitute Hypothesis. Through this article, we will explore the foundations of the two hypotheses and how they try to explain the sighting of a risen Jesus after the crucifixion.

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Alchemy has long captivated the imagination, blending early science with mysticism in a relentless quest for the philosopher's stone. Yet, within this arcane discipline, no figure is more shrouded in secrecy than the enigmatic master known only as Fulcanelli. Emerging from the shadows of early 20th-century France, this brilliant and elusive alchemist left behind profound texts, devoted students who claimed to have witnessed lead turn to gold, and a legacy that has baffled historians for nearly a century. To this day, his true identity remains one of history’s most tantalizing unsolved puzzles, leaving us to wonder: who was the man behind the pseudonym, and did he truly unlock the ultimate secrets of alchemy before vanishing without a trace?

The Anonymous Alchemist

Alchemy is, in and of itself, a mysterious area of practice and study. However, nothing about it is more mysterious than the people who practice it or, at least, the people who have been purported to practice it. One such man was known only through his publications and his students. They called him Fulcanelli and that was the name on his books, but who this man really was seems lost to history.

What We Know About Fulcanelli

Learning more about Fulcanelli’s life is virtually impossible. He was born in the late 19th century, and his works were published in the early half of the 20th century. He wrote about a wife in his notes, so he was presumably heterosexual and married. The assumption is often made that Fulcanelli, whoever he was, was well educated. This is based on the merit of his writing and his ability to write in numerous languages, including his native French, as well as Latin and Greek. However, that is just speculation. He may have simply been well-read.

The fact is that we have no evidence of his schooling, his marriage or really even his ability to write well. He could have hired someone, no matter how doubtful that scenario may be. When people say Fulcanelli was a mystery, they mean it.

His Students

Even the name Fulcanelli is believed to be a nom de plume that has succeeded in shielding the true author for nearly a century. However, three names of known men are associated with Fulcanelli. These are the names of his students. The most famous of his students was Eugene Canseliet. This man allegedly turned lead into gold, a trick he learned from his master. He became Fulcanelli’s student when he was only 16 years old. Within a few years, Jean-Julien Hubert Champagne and Gaston Sauvage also became his students. Sauvage reportedly witnessed Canseliet turning lead into gold. Champagne was the illustrator for his master’s works, which were published after Fulcanelli’s disappearance around 1926. (Note: Canseliet allegedly saw him after this, but 1926 is the commonly cited year for the aging alchemist’s disappearance.)

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True Identity Theories

Canseliet himself is one of the proposed identities of Fulcanelli. He was responsible for publishing the alchemist’s books after Fulcanelli’s disappearance. He also claimed to have seen him in 1953 at a Spanish castle. Canseliet further claimed that the man who was by then in his 80s looked like he was in his 50s.

With stories like this, it is no surprise that some people think Canseliet is actually the writer behind Le Mystere des Cathedrales and Le Demeures Philosophales.

Another interesting claim is that Jean-Julien Hubert Champagne was Fulcanelli. Sure, the timeline seems odd, as he became a student of the master after Canseliet, but the timeline may have been fabricated. Furthermore, Champagne was the illustrator of the Fulcanelli books and was educated. However, as with everything else to do with Fulcanelli, this theory is not without its holes as well.

Lastly, it has been suggested that physicist Jules Violle was Fulcanelli. Unfortunately, there is nothing solid to back up this theory. It was just a wild shot in the dark posited decades ago and added to the lore simply because it was something amid a huge void in information about this mysterious man.

This is one of the few cases in history where there is so little to go on that curiosity about the subject rarely bears fruit. The men who brought the name Fulcanelli to the public are all long dead. Fulcanelli himself may still be alive somewhere if Canseliet is to be believed. Although, it is more likely that Fulcanelli either was the first to die or was one of them all along.

By Shelley Barclay

Religions are often tied to certain symbols that represent faith and, when worn, are a way of identifying others of the same belief system. Judaism has the Magen David, and Christianity has the cross that takes different forms based on the denomination one belongs to.

There is the Crescent and Star of the Islamic faith and the AUM or OM symbol of Hinduism. These symbols represent faith, piety, protection, and devotion, all good things.

However, not all symbols are associated with “good”; some are associated with “evil.” The pentagram is one of those symbols associated with good and evil for centuries. What is the true meaning of the pentagram? What are its origins, and why is it associated with the occult?

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The Tuskegee experiment was one of the most ethically abusive studies in United States history. The full title of the study conducted by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) was the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” and it was conducted on a group of about 600 African Americans suffering from syphilis.

It included x-rays, blood tests, autopsies, and spinal taps of the subjects, as the researchers sought to understand the disease further. However, what it did not include was treatment for the syphilis, which was allowed to progress untreated in the subjects.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

When the study was started in 1932, there was no cure available for people suffering from syphilis. The highly contagious disease started with minor symptoms, such as swelling near the groin. From there, the disease would commonly progress at a rapid pace, leading to chronic fatigue, weight loss, and hair loss, and eventually even death.

In order to understand the disease better, the Tuskegee Institute and the USPHS decided to conduct a study in Macon County, Georgia. To attract applicants, they promised to deliver free medical care to participants.

Among the 600 African American men recruited, 399 men suffered from the disease, while the remaining 201 men acted as the control group of the study. The main purpose of the study was to understand the history of sufferers, and to observe the effects when the disease was left untreated.

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The study intended to document the complete progression of the disease in the body of individuals and its effects. However, the subjects of the study were unaware of the fact, and the promise of treatment was a lie.

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Dr. Martin Couney was a “doctor” who created medical history by saving thousands of premature babies. Very little information is on record for this doctor, but what does remain shows he was worthy of admiration. Dr. Couney was born in the year 1869 in Prussia. His original name was Michael Cohen, which he changed when he emigrated to New York at the age of 18.

Couney didn’t have any recorded medical credentials, instead claiming that he was the protégé of a renowned French doctor named Pierre-Constant Budin. This French doctor had been made famous as the person who introduced incubators into Europe.

There is no evidence of Couney’s claim, but regardless of whether he was from a medical background or had any medical credentials, he dedicated 40 years of his life towards helping premature babies.

He started his practice in New York and soon expanded to other cities and countries as well. As per the new book that has been written on him, named The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies, by Dawn Raffel, Dr. Couney was responsible for saving between 6,500 or 7,000 lives over his lifetime.

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What Motivated Martin Couney?

Dr. Couney always said that he was trying to raise awareness about premature babies, to convince the medical establishment that the correct treatment would result in many more surviving. But apart from that, he also wanted to ensure that the public could see the benefits of this treatment and believe that their babies could be saved.

The methods that this doctor adapted were somewhat strange, even when compared to modern standards. But they did work and the lives of many premature babies were saved!

He used to put premature babies in his incubators on public display, and the public would pay a quarter to witness them battling life and death in those incubators. Even though these methods were unconventional, this was a critical source of funding for his work and Dr. Couney was the only person offering this life saving treatment.

Hospitals at that time didn’t have incubators for treating premature babies. On top of that there was a general lack of resources to help the babies, such as breast milk and nurses. Many believed that premature babies were some sort of social burden, and various medical journals referred to them as weaklings.

The professional doctors who should have been trying to save those babies, instead were quick to give up on them, considering them a lost cause. But Dr. Martin Couney was not among those doctors!

A Showman Doctor

Martin Couney gave himself the title of “doctor” to give himself and his work more authority. He was sure that he would get away with this title because there was no internet, no long-distance phones, and no resources to disprove his fake identity. In addition, people evidently saw the results of his work in saving premature babies and were happy to believe he was a real doctor.

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He was successful in saving a huge number of premature babies in his lifetime. According to Dawn Raffel, Dr. Couney lived closely alongside those children, even after they were safely out of the incubators. He used to get invitations to birthday parties and even weddings of the babies whom he saved.

Martin Couney hired barkers to stand at his exhibit’s entrance and entice the general public. They used slogans such as “Don’t forget to see the babies!”. These slogans worked well, and people turned up to see those babies.

In the year 1922 Couney hired a young British actor as one of his barkers. His name was Archibald Leach, a name that he changed later to Cary Grant!

Many panicked and scared parents used to drop off their premature babies at Couney’s exhibit in the hope that Couney could save them. Hospitals would offer little hope to the parents that these babies could be saved, but Couney was on a mission!

Couney’s Remarkable New Approach

When a new baby arrived, they would be bathed, rubbed with alcohol, and swaddled tightly before being placed in an incubator. The temperature of the incubator was carefully decided, depending upon the patient’s condition.

All the babies who could suckle were taken upstairs with the help of a small elevator and were breastfed by some wet nurses. Any babies who couldn’t suckle were fed with the use of a funneled spoon.

Couney left no records for his life-saving efforts, but it is evident that he was not able to save every baby he took in. However, he claimed an 85% survival rate, and it is certain that is efforts saved babies who would otherwise have died.

it is believed that most of the deaths of premature babies he took in were within a couple of days of receiving them. Therefore, he made a statement that if a baby lives for seven days within the incubator, under Couney’s charge, they were not going to die!

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The Ignorance of the Medical Establishment

Couney’s success in helping premature babies drew attention to tragedies in the wider medical world as well. St. Louis had planned an incubator exhibit in their 1904 World’s Fair, but the organizers did not invite Couney to the exhibit.

Instead, they went for the lowest bidder, whose name was Joseph Hardy. He was fully ignorant about caring for premature babies but was licensed with medical credentials.

After the exhibit was open for quite some time, Humane Society Examination did a survey and learned that 39 babies have died, out of 43 who were taken care of within the incubators. Couney then published an open letter, in the New York Evening Journal, by titling it as “The Crime of the Decade.”

Conclusion

Couney died in 1950 at the ripe old age of 80. He had closed his exhibit of incubators and premature babies 7 years before his death, in 1943. What he did was a testament to his dedication to help premature babies and give them new life. It also highlighted how the medical establishment failed to help those babies who could have been saved.

By Bipin Dimri

Top Image: Martin Coney holding two premature infants. Source: The New York Public Library

References

Fake doctor saved thousands of infants and changed medical history Available at: https://nypost.com/2018/07/23/how-fake-docs-carnival-sideshow-brought-baby-incubators-to-main-stage/

The fake doctor who saved thousands of babies. Available at: https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-15/fake-doctor-who-saved-thousands-babies

How a Fake Doctor’s Coney Island Sideshows and Chutzpah Revolutionized Preemie Care. Available at: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2018/08/17/how-a-fake-doctors-coney-island-sideshows-and-chutzpah-revolutionized-preemie-care/

Over the centuries the Bible has gone through various iterations and been translated into many different languages. The problem has always been that the writers and translators of these adaptations have tended to add their views to the Bible.

This has led to some major controversies. Perhaps most controversial of all was the Wycliffe Bible, the first attempt to produce an English-language Bible. Its production made its creator, John Wycliffe a pariah in the Catholic Church. What was the Wycliffe Bible and why were its contents so contentious?

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The world is full of weird phenomena but one of the strangest, and rarest, is the timeslip. These are instances when people claim to have momentarily been transported to a different era or time period.

One of the most famous examples of this phenomenon is the Kersey Timeslip Incident, during which three teenage boys from the United Kingdom claimed to have seen the village of Kersey hundreds of years in the past. While nearly impossible to prove, experts have struggled to fully discount the witness’ versions of events.

So, what’s the truth? Did these boys really travel back in time, or is there a more reasonable explanation?

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Synonymous with paradise, God created the Garden of Eden as a home for the first man and woman. After God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden for their disobedience, what happened to it? Was Eden an idea alone or a physical location, as the Bible seems to imply?

Eden in the Book of Genesis

According to Genesis 2:8-15, God created the Garden of Eden following the seventh day.

8: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9: Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10: A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11: The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12: and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13: The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14: The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

As Genesis continues, Adam and Eve disobey God’s command by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God cast them out of Eden, and humanity lost the glorious garden.

Tigris and Euphrates

Genesis names the four rivers branching from the first river that flows from Eden. The Tigris and Euphrates (Gen. 2:14) run about 1000 miles from headwaters in eastern Turkey through Iraq, converging and emptying into the Persian Gulf. These twin rivers created the cradle of civilization, or Mesopotamia, the ancient Greek name for “the land between the rivers.”

Pishon and Gihon

The location of Gihon and Pishon (Gen. 2:11-13) remains unknown. The courses of the Euphrates and particularly the faster-flowing Tigris have shifted over the millennia. The Pishon and Gihon may have been ancient tributaries or branches of these two mighty rivers. These few geographical clues about Eden from Genesis lead us to Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq.

Eden and Mesopotamia

The idea of Eden doesn’t originate with the Hebrew Bible, but in earlier Mesopotamia, the home of ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Kassites, and Hebrews. The name Eden is not Hebrew but originates in another Semitic language, Akkadian. Edinu, or edin, means plain or uncultivated land.

Connections in the Old Testament and Mesopotamian Literature

Early Mesopotamian traditions frequently overlap with many stories of the Old Testament. The Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, features the creation of the world and humanity, the flood, and a covenant between the gods and humanity. The Epic of Atrahasis includes another account of the flood and a Noah-like leader Atrahasis who saves humanity from destruction. Many different Mesopotamian stories recount the creation of humanity. Some involve dirt or clay, and some endow humans with a divine spirit. Mesopotamian literature also offers parallels to the Garden of Eden.

Epic of Gilgamesh: The Garden of Gemstones

The Epic of Gilgamesh begins in the third millennium in Uruk, the foundational city of Iraq. Written in cuneiform around 1800 BCE, the 10-tablet epic recounts the journey for wisdom by the young king Gilgamesh. In Tablet X, following an arduous trek through deserts and mountains, he arrives at a fantastic and bountiful garden by the sea.

The surviving tablets are badly broken but tell of:

thorny, prickly, spiky bushes… blossoming with gemstones. Carnelian bore fruit handing in clusters, lovely to look at, Lapis lazuli bore foliage, bore fruit, and was delightful to view.

Dalley, 2008

The beautiful and verdant setting echoes some details from Genesis.

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Epic of Gilgamesh: Enkidu’s Origins

In Tablet I of the same epic, Gilgamesh’s partner Enkidu is born into an Edenic setting. The goddess Aruru forms Enkidu of clay and casts him into the countryside. There he lived, dressed, and ate like the animals until a woman opened his eyes to civilization by clothing him and feeding him the food of mankind. Once so enlightened, the animals rejected Enkidu, and he became an outcast from nature.

Enkidu’s origins, control of animals, and transformation mirror those of Adam. While Enkidu didn’t live in a garden, he lived in a state of paradise, the plains (edin) of Mesopotamia.

Eridu and the Ubaid Civilization

If looking for historical analogs to Edin, archaeologists might point to the earliest civilization of southern Mesopotamia. The Ubaid culture of the Tigris-Euphrates marshlands built the first city of Mesopotamia at Eridu.

The ruins of Eridu are found today in a desert landscape. However, 8000 years ago, the Persian Gulf extended much further inland. Fertile marshes fed by the Euphrates surrounded the city of Eridu. The inhabitants would have benefited from a highly diversified ecosystem. They relied on freshwater fish, birds, animals, marine life from the Persian Gulf, and products from irrigated farmlands on the city’s outskirts. While only a small number of people would have lived in Eridu, they would not have lacked resources.

E-abzu: First Home of the Gods

Around 5500 BCE, the people of Eridu built the first temple of Mesopotamia. This small mud-brick structure was about 15 feet long and sitting atop a small mound. This temple was E-abzu, dedicated to Enki, the God of fresh water and creator of humans in Sumerian tradition.

Mesopotamian art depicts Enki with freshwater streaming from his shoulders. Eridu and Enki feature in many Sumer and later Mesopotamian stories as the first home of the gods and as a site that survives a devastating global flood. Eridu was Mesopotamia’s first civilization, just as Eden was the first home to humanity in Genesis.

Is the Garden of Eden Real or an Imagined Place?

So was the Garden of Eden a real place or a state of paradise? That may be best left to the reader to decide. A survey of Biblical literature, Mesopotamian texts, and Sumerian archaeology led us to many clues of Eden’s origin as an idea. Therefore, like the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, the physical Garden itself remains elusive.

By Vicki

References

Eric Cline and Mark Graham, Ancient Empires: From Mesopotamia to the Rise of Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).

Gwendolyn Leick, Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City (Penguin, 2001).

Bruce Metzger and Roland Murphy, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (Oxford University Press, 1991).

Edward L. Ochsenschlager, Iraq’s Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

On September 11, 2001, also known as 9/11, terrorists attacked the United States. Citizens were shocked, scared, and grieving. It was a time of deep paranoia and distrust. People wondered when and if the country would be attacked again. Then, in a matter of days, another act of terrorism shook the country. A number of letters containing spores of the bacteria that causes anthrax were sent to public figures and media outlets. People who had been exposed to these letters — or even letters that had only come into contact with the anthrax letters — began falling ill.

What is Anthrax?

Anthrax is a disease that is caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis. It typically affects herbivorous mammals but can infect any mammal including humans. Most human anthrax infections result from contact with infected animals or infected animal byproducts. There are three ways to contract the disease: through open skin, breathing in spores, or ingesting the bacteria. It does not spread from one infected human to another. However, the fatal dosage is invisible to the naked eye.

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Google Earth, the program which utilizes satellite imagery and aerial photographs to map the Earth in amazing detail, can be used for a variety of reasons. Some people use it to locate areas they have lived or traveled, while others use it to visit remote places of the planet that one would not otherwise be able to see. I belong to this group, as I am sure many others are as well. Google Earth is the perfect tool to explore and discover the physical remains of ancient cultures or unexplained anomalies found throughout this wonderful world. Believe it or not, amazing discoveries have been found using this program.

Amazing and Mysterious Places on Google Earth

In this article, I list ten mysterious places on Google Earth (in no particular order) that are quite fascinating. In addition to the photographs imaged through Google Earth, there is a brief summary of the area and its actual coordinates so you can visit these strange and fascinating places yourself through Google Earth.

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Works of Christian Art are filled with symbols that tell the story of the scripture through images. Some common signs include the crucifix/the cross and an ichthys (IXΘΣ which is short for “Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ” which means Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).

In Roman art, you can find the letters A (alpha) and ω or Ω (omega), which comes from Revelations 22:13, 1:8, and 21:6 and the statement by Christ that “I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Besides Greek letters, animals like a lamb (innocence), dove (peace), pelican (self-sacrifice), and peacock (fabulous) are featured in Christian iconograph as biblical scholars and artists cast about for new ways to portray the ineffable.

One of the most easily recognizable symbols in Christian art is the halo. This golden ring of light behind an individual’s head is far more than an accessory or the artist’s attempt to emphasize the “important” figures. The halo, or a glowing aura, is used to illustrate the Crown of Immortality and martyrdom.

So, what is the significance of the Crown of Immortality?

Crown of Immortality

The Crown of Immortality is a common religious and literary metaphor that has evolved from a laurel wreath to a halo, a circle of stars, or an aureola. The Crown of Immortality can be found in Christian Art to indicate that the person wearing the crown is immortal.

While the Crown of Immorality is often associated with Christian iconography, wearing a wreath or crown dates back to ancient Egypt. When someone died, a wreath crown was placed on their head to represent the wearer’s triumph over death in the afterlife. In ancient Egypt, this wreath was called “the crown of justification” and has been described as emulating the god of resurrection, Osiris.

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The crown of justification from ancient Egypt was often made of varying materials, such as papyrus, laurel branches, palm fronds, roses, feathers, or precious metals like gold. Depictions of these early Crowns of Immortality can be found in the Fayum mummy portraits from the Roman Imperial period, specifically in Roman Egypt.

Wearing wreaths of laurel or olive is often associated with ancient Greece and its presentation to athletes and poets as a signal of victory or knowledge. In Rome, generals who won a battle would often ride through the streets of Rome with a laurel wreath upon their heads.

At that time, wearing a crown of any kind, especially those made from laurel, was something only the Imperial family had the right to do, so if someone else was wearing one, they were important and deserved respect. Like the Roman Imperial purple, it denoted rank.

Placing a Crown of Immortality or a wreath on someone’s head was known as “crowning,” and it was believed that the crown would “secure the wearer’s immorality in the form of enduring flame, but the triumphator (victorious general) would receive a wreath to remind them of their mortality. It was known that a slave would whisper into a general’s ear during processions through the city “memento mori.” The phrase means “remember death” and was another remember that the person, even surrounded by their triumph, was mortal.

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Marking of a Martyr

In Christian works of art, you will often see a glowing halo, a wreath, or an aura around the head of a martyr. In the manuscript Martyrdom of Polycarp, the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, and disciple of Saint John (also known as John the Apostle or Saint John the Beloved) from the fourth century AD is so depicted.

Polycarp was stabbed to death after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. Polycarp was said to “have been crowned with the wreath of immortality… through patience overcome the unjust governor, and thus acquired the crown of immortality”.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp is an early literary example of being awarded the title of martyr after suffering, death, and persecution. Jesus endured suffering at the hands of the Romans and non-believers when he was crucified, and so did those who have been made martyrs in the eyes of the church.

This is an example of undying faith and refusal to give up their beliefs, even if it meant they signed their own order of execution. The Crown of Immortality also pays homage to the crown of thorns that Jesus was made to wear during the days leading up to his crucifixion. Almost all artistic depictions of saints feature a Crown of Immortality.

Artists would commonly include certain symbols in their work to symbolize martyrs and their victory of good over evil by choosing to give up their lives for God. In medieval artwork, images of a winged figure (Victory), attendants carrying crowns, and palm trees.

Palm trees have been used to symbolize martyrdom in works of art because it was once believed that the palm plants “would die while generating fruits, thus being a strong symbol of sacrifice.” Today the church uses palm fronds on Palm Sunday, the Sunday that falls right before Easter.

Works of Art with Crowns of Immortality

In the masterpiece Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power by Pietro de Cortona, the central figure in yellow is Divine Providence. Above her, there are putto (cherubs or cupids), levitating maidens who hold a crown of stars (Crown of Immortality), keys to the church, and other figures in the background have crowns of what appear to be laurels.

In El Greco’s painting Christ Carrying the Cross, Jesus wears the crown of thorns, and a glowing light is behind his head. The light serves as a Crown of Immortality, resurrection, and divinity.

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Another fantastic depiction of a Crown of Immortality is the painting Madonna in Glory by Carlo Dolci. Mary Magdalen looks towards the heavens with a crown of stars above her head.

There is also symbolism in Mary’s hands in this painting. Her open palm depicts one whose thoughts are pure, who is a person of faith and truth, and someone with a genuine soul. Her other hand, which rests upon her heart, is a symbol of righteousness and someone who has prayed throughout her life.

Top Image: Eterna (eternity) carries the Crown of Immortality in this depiction in the Swedish House of Nobility. Source: Xauxa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

By Lauren Dillon

References

Church Fathers, 4th century AD. The Martyrdom of Polycarp. Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0102.htm

Beard, M. 2009. The Roman Triumph. Harvard University Press.

Feingold, S. 2018. Why the Martyr Wears a Crown. National Catholic Register. Available at: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/why-the-martyr-wears-a-crown

von Payer, A. 2005. Die Johannesapokalypse in klassischen Comics. Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart. Available at: http://www.payer.de/christentum/apokalypse.htm

As a city’s population grows, the desire for space to build homes, businesses, schools, and houses of worship becomes more important. City expansion is normal, as history has demonstrated, but one thing often gets overlooked.

What is a city to do with its deceased residents? If space is limited and there are more bodies than space to bury them, where do the corpses go?

This was a struggle London faced in the 19th century, as well as becoming a major health crisis. Two men proposed a unique idea: develop a railway for the dead and bury them outside the city.

This strange idea grew into the London Necropolis Railway. And it operated a service for the dead for 87 years.

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The Cold War was a conflict like no other. A quiet, hidden conflict, drawn out and defined by intelligence collection, propaganda, and the race for nuclear weapons. This was a war won and lost by spies and by betrayal.

And of the all the treasonous betrayals, none was perhaps so severe, and had such far-reaching consequences, as that of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. How did the Rosenbergs get their hands on such vital intelligence that the government was obligated to rewrite tradition?

And did they deserve to die?

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The Second World War was a terrible global conflict, fought across innumerable battlefields on land and sea. Some of these naval battles between the Allied and Axis powers were decisive and heroic, while others were disastrous and tragic.

But perhaps the most catastrophic of all was Operation Wikinger, a German sortie into the North Sea that ended in disaster. The Germans lost two vitally important ships, hundreds of men, and humiliated themselves in the process.

Making everything worse, the Germans had put to sea thinking the plan was a slam dunk. This is how Germany went from what seemed like a quick and easy win to a badly orchestrated bloodbath.

The Plan

By early 1940 the Kriegsmarine, the navy of Nazi Germany, had started paying attention to the British fishing trawlers operating around Dogger Bank, part of the North Sea. They had noticed that at any given time up to 60 defenseless British trawlers could be found there, vital for the UK’s food stocks and easy prey to armed naval ships.

It looked like a potentially easy win. Firstly, if the Kriegsmarine put these fishing grounds beyond the reach of the Allies it would hurt their enemy financially. As an island nation, Britain relied on its fishing vessels, especially during wartime. Such a humiliating defeat would also hurt the country’s morale.

Secondly, the Kriegsmarine suspected that the British fishing trawlers were spying on German naval movements and possibly finding the swept channels in the Westwall minefield belt, a defensive barrier of mines laid by the Germans along the coast of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Luftwaffe reconnaissance flights also indicated that British submarines were operating in the area.

So, the Kriegsmarine came up with Operation Wikinger. It hoped that in one fell swoop it could destroy these trawlers and in doing so it could hurt the British economy and morale and hopefully lure out British naval forces which would come to the rescue. The Kriegsmarine then could launch a devastating surprise attack on these ships.

Since the Kriegsmarine’s destroyers were fast and well-armed, and the British naval presence in the area was assumed to be weak, the Germans believed Operation Wikinger to be a low-risk, high-reward mission. It quickly got the green light.

The operation began on 21 February 1940 when six German destroyers, the Leberecht Maass, the Friedrich Eckoldt, the Richard Beitzen, the Max Schultz, the Theodor Riedel, and the Bruno Heinemann left their base at Wilhelmshaven.

Divided into two groups, each led by a flotilla leader, they headed for Dogger Bank, hoping to arrive there by the following morning. The plan was simple. Turn up, hunt down the trawlers, and then launch a surprise attack on any Brits who turned up to help.

What could possibly go wrong?

Miscommunication, Miscommunication, Miscommunication

As it turned out, everything. The entire operation was doomed from the start. The Kriegsmarine had no major air component which meant it had to rely on the Luftwaffe for air support. It had requested fighter cover to help it carry out Operation Wikinger, but received none.

This was a problem because unbeknownst to the Kriegsmarine, the Luftwaffe had its own mission planned in the same region. At the same time as the Kriegsmarine had six of its ships barreling towards Dogger Bank, the Luftwaffe had two Heinkel He 111 bombers heading there to carry out their own long-postponed anti-shipping operation.

Things started to go off the rails when one of these planes spotted two of the German ships but, unsure of whether they were friend or foe, decided not to send out any recognition signals. This resulted in one of the ships opening fire on the bomber, believing it to be a British plane.

The bomber retaliated by attacking both ships and dropping three bombs. One of these scored a direct hit on the Leberecht Maass. The German ships panicked and scattered, and the Friedrich Eckoldt was ordered to help the wounded Leberecht Maass while the other four escaped.

As the Friedrich Eckoldt was aiding her, the Lebrecht Maass was hit by two more bombs. This time there was a massive explosion, and the ship broke clean in two.

From there, things only got worse. The Leberecht Maass had been the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla and without its lead, the other destroyers completely fell out of formation and command fell apart. Panic quickly began to set in.

While the Friedrich Eckoldt was attempting to save survivors of the sinking Lebrecht Maass, lookouts on the Richard Beitzen were reporting another air attack which had triggered further explosions. Acoustic noises from this seem to have registered on the Theodor Riedel’s hydrophone. This led the ship to think it had found a British submarine, so it dropped four depth charges.

These charges went off early, exploding too close to the ship. This in turn damaged the destroyer and jammed its rudder, leaving it stuck sailing around in circles. A lookout on the Erich Koellner then caused yet more trouble when he communicated he had spotted the non-existent British submarine.

This had two unfortunate consequences. Firstly, it was ordered that rescue efforts be paused while the surviving ships hunted for the submarine, and many more sailors drowned awaiting rescue. Second, the Erich Koellner’s captain decided to try and ram the submarine which, and we cannot stress this enough, still wasn’t real.

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In hindsight, it was decided he had probably spotted and rammed the sunken bow of the Leberecht Maass. By now the situation was completely unsalvageable.

If this wasn’t all bad enough the ships soon realized that at some point in the confusion the Max Schultz had fallen silent. In all the chaos it had hit one of the 120 mines laid in the area by the British destroyers HMS Ivanhoe and HMS Intrepid nearly a month earlier. Mines they might well have known about if the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe had communicated properly.

When the smoke settled it was found that 320 crewmen had died when the Max Schultz sank and 286 of the crew aboard the Leberecht Maass had also died. Only 60 survivors were rescued.

The Kriegsmarine had to face the consequences of losing two destroyers and hundreds of sailors in a friendly fire incident. The operation was a complete failure for the German armed forces and a humiliating blow to their reputation and morale.

Avoiding Disaster

The most tragic part was how avoidable the whole thing could have been if only the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe had communicated better and coordinated their operations in the North Sea. Standing orders dictated that both parties cooperate in naval operations and inform each other of their sorties and air operations. This hadn’t happened.

If it had, the Luftwaffe bomber would never have been caught off guard when it spotted the destroyers. If the Kriegsmarine had received the air support it requested in the first place, the disaster also could have been avoided.

There were other operation failures too. Recognition signals should have been used but weren’t and arguably both sides had been too trigger-happy. The fact that the Max Schultz had been sunk was an intelligence error. The Kriegsmarine should have done more reconnaissance and analysis of the situation before launching the operation and adjusted their tactics and strategy accordingly.

The failure of Operation Wikinger was a tragic example of the lack of cooperation and trust between the German armed forces, which hampered their effectiveness in the war. The Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe had different priorities and perspectives and often competed for resources and influence.

The Kriegsmarine was more focused on the surface war, while the Luftwaffe was more interested in the air war and the strategic bombing of Britain. The Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe also had different doctrines and cultures and did not share a common vision or command structure.

They failed to work together as a team, and instead worked against each other, leading to disastrous consequences for both services and for Germany.

It wasn’t just the worst naval sortie of WW2; it was arguably one of the worst military operations throughout the entire war. Any loss of human life during wartime is tragic but when it’s down to a lack of communication and poor planning it’s even worse. Operation Wikinger has to be one of the worst own goals in military history.

Top Image: The Lebrecht Maass, lead ship of the flotilla which set to sea under Operation Wikinger. Only 60 sailors would be rescued from her wreck, which was then rammed by her sister ship. Source: Julio / Public Domain.

By Robbie Mitchell

References

Neikirk. N. 2022. Operation Wikinger: The Kriegsmarine’s Disastrous Mission in the North Sea. War History Online. Available here: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/operation-wikinger.html

Editor. 2023. Operation Wikinger. Codenames. Available here: https://codenames.info/operation/wikinger-i/

Nambi. K. 2020. The World War II German Operation Which became An Internet Meme- Operation Wikinger. Medium. Available here: https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/german-operation-which-is-an-internet-meme-operation-wikinger-f733d257eb6f

Murder can be a tricky business to unpick, and the real world rarely offers as neat a conundrum to unravel as those cases faced by Sherlock Holmes, or those cracked by the brilliant mind of Columbo. Often when a case is solved the murderer is revealed to be someone who was not even considered a suspect, and clues upon which an entire case seems to revolve can turn out to be only a distraction.

For all this confusion however, the majority of murders are actually quite straightforward affairs, and once the world of the victim is unpicked and understood there are usually clear answers. However, some cases seem so willfully obscure and confusing that a logical solution seems outright impossible.

Here are eight of the strangest murders that remain unsolved.

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This mystery has occupied the minds of many Oregonians for over 100 years. The meteorite mystery has remained an object of speculation, not least because it has been missing since its introduction to the world in the 19th century.

It all stems from the US Department of the Interior’s decision to hire a man named John Evans to conduct a survey in Oregon. He was a medical doctor from New Hampshire who had little geological experience.

He was tasked to conduct a geological reconnaissance survey of Southwestern Oregon. It was here that he would make his fame and begin a myth that would continue well past his lifetime.

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The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of Gnostic and early Christian texts that were discovered in Northern Egypt in the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. They are also known as the Gnostic Gospels or the Chenoboskion Manuscripts.

Thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices were found in a sealed jar by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman. These texts were made up of 52 treatises as well as three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a small translation of Plato’s Republic.

It was these discoveries that significantly influenced scholars’ knowledge and pursuit of Gnosticism and Christianity in the ancient world. Here, it seemed, was an entirely separate branch of early Christianity.

Within the codices, the texts are written in the Coptic Language which is a form of Egyptian script. The best known is probably the Gospel of Thomas which the Nag Hammadi contains the only complete text.

Scholars have recognized that fragments of sayings attributed to Jesus appeared in the manuscripts discovered at Oxyrhynchus in 1898 as well as in the Nag Hammadi. These manuscripts are now housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. But what was in the library and how were they discovered?

Discovery

In 1945, a group of Egyptians that were digging for fertilizer stumbled across Nag Hammadi. They were at the base of the Jabal al-Tarif located on the east bank of the Nile and across the river from the town of Nag Hammadi.

The farmer broke the jar that they found and discovered thirteen leather-bound codices. He took them home and his mother used some of the pages for fuel on the home oven, thinking them valueless.

The codices were however quickly passed into the hands of various antique dealers. Importantly, it ended up in the Jung Institute in Zurich before being moved to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo where it went through preservation and has been sustained ever since.

Despite the hoard of manuscripts being referred to as a “library”, researchers have no definite evidence that they were created with a larger collection in mind. The scripts, writing styles and materials, and dialects are all varied and diverse.

There have been estimates made that suggest there were at a minimum 14 different scribes throughout the texts. Although they are all written in the Coptic language, some of the texts are similar to a more Sahidic dialect whilst others are closer to the Subakhmimic. As well as this, there are huge variations between these two quite similar scripts.

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It is likely that the manuscripts were copied in various locations and collated later on by a group or individual. In Addition to their insight into the history of religions, the texts have reinvigorated the study of Coptic philology and codicology.

Many of the leather covers of the texts contain scraps of discarded papyrus glued together in order to make the cover firmer. The latest of the scraps can be dated to 348 AD. This suggests that these codices were made sometime around 350 AD and buried in the following decades.

There has been a long debate about who may have copied the manuscripts, collated them, and buried them. Some have suggested that it was Christian monks perhaps afraid of persecution. The discovery was made near the ancient site of Pbou and some of the manuscript covers contain letters from monks from that era.

However, Christian monks were not the only ones interested in preserving religious texts in fourth-century Egypt. Thus, it cannot be proved who decided to keep these texts safe for future generations.

It has even been speculated that the Bishop of Athanasius of Alexandria’s declaration of the Bible for the Egyptian church in a letter of 367 may have led to the burial of the codices. However, there is nothing to confirm or deny these theories.

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Gnosticism: Hidden Knowledge?

There are forty-six different treatises contained in the codices which have diverse content in genres and theologies. Most of the religious texts can be categorized as Jewish or Christian as they seem to be derived from the Hebrew Bible.

However, there are also aspects of the manuscripts that don’t come from this for example the parts that detail Plato’s Republic. The texts were originally composed in Greek before being translated into Coptic. This makes it difficult to trace the origins of the manuscripts.

Much of the content discussed in the manuscripts covers apocalypses and revelations. These usually include a divine figure or an authoritative mortal that reveals the future, theological ideas, or cosmological secrets.

Despite many of the texts referring to themselves as Gospels, none of them resemble the Gospels of the New Testament that are present today. For example, the Gospel of Thomas seems to just be a collation of Jesus’s sayings without any narrative to guide them along.

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The discovery of Nag Hammadi has had a huge impact on various areas of the religious history of the Mediterranean ancient world. This is true despite the results not being completely clear as of yet. Scholars have spent decades editing and translating the tracts and are still trying to work out how the new data impacts fields such as the New Testament, Gnosticism, and the traditions of Jesus.

Before the discovery, only a handful of published works existed for Gnosticism written in the Coptic script. Scholars can now read work in Coptic translations, works produced by Gnostics themselves rather than rely on accounts from their opponents.

These accounts often included cliched charges and attacks on Gnostics. However, despite the discovery, scholars have been unable to identify a definite description of the Gnostic faith and how people became indoctrinated into Gnosticism.

Even though they have been impressed by the variety of texts, some scholars have come to the conclusion that the study of these texts should be abandoned. The codices have provided a new line of inquiry for scholars of the ancient Mediterranean world, but they have provided very few answers.

The study of early church history in this period remains as murky as it ever was before their discovery.

Top Image: The Nag Hammadi library allowed scholars to read about gnostic Christianity in their own words. Source: geralt / Public Domain.

By Kurt Readman

References

Biblical Archaeology Society Staff. 2023. The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity. Available at: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-nag-hammadi-codices/

Encyclopedia. 2023. Nag Hammadi. Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nag-hammadi

Gnostic Society Library. 2023. The Nag Hammadi Library. Available at: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

McCoy, D. 2023. The Nag Hammadi Library. Available at: https://gnosticismexplained.org/the-nag-hammadi-library/

Opus Dei. 2006. What is the Nag Hammadi library? Available at: https://opusdei.org/en-uk/article/what-is-the-nag-hammadi-library/

Abandoned hospitals might be number two on the list of the creepiest places to visit, right after abandoned funeral homes. Something about the dirty dark hallways with ominous graffiti, the abandoned medical equipment and rusty hospital beds, and the spirits of patients who walked into the facility and never left make these hospitals hell on earth for some people and the ideal haunted location for others.

There was one such abandoned hospital in Moscow known as the Hovrinskaya Hospital that would make anyone feel uneasy just looking at the building. This hospital was compared to the hospital from Resident Evil.

It would have been the perfect location to shoot a Russian version of The Walking Dead or some other zombie apocalypse film. What is the story behind the haunted Hovrinskaya Hospital?

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Hidden within the ancient writing of Graeco-Roman Egypt lies a treasure trove not of gold, but of ancient secrets. There is the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the Ebers Papyrus, the Turin King List, and the London Medical Papyrus. And then there are the ones that teach you magic, like the Greek Magical Papyri.

This ancient book of spells and rituals provides readers with magical knowledge and illustrates the syncretism prevalent in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Far from dry administrative records or standard religious texts, these enigmatic scrolls are genuine grimoires, offering a tantalizing glimpse into a world where Egyptian magic seamlessly blended with Greek and Roman rituals. From complex incantations for immortality and divine invocations to bizarre spells for invisibility requiring the eye of a corpse, this underground literature reveals the profound and practical lengths to which ancient people went to control the unseen forces of their universe.

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