Apr 06, 2012 A sky-high column of glowing plasma has influenced countless religious ideas. The mediaeval scholar-monk Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 – c. 1256) was a renowned computist – expert in the calculation of the correct date of Easter in … Continue reading →

  Mar 12, 2012 Ever since the gradualist doctrine natura non facit saltus cast an ossifying spell on the academic community, catastrophist theories of myth and other traditions have been anathema to the learned. Some envisioned events considerably more dramatic than an … Continue reading →

Mar 09, 2012 Ever since the gradualist doctrine natura non facit saltus cast an ossifying spell on the academic community, catastrophist theories of myth and other traditions have been anathema to the learned. Pre-Lyellians such as Thomas Burnet (c. 1635? … Continue reading →

Mar 07, 2012 Even the lonely monuments left behind have a story to tell. Chavín de Huantar, in the Peruvian Andes, is one of many civilisations to have preceded the mighty Inca empire. The occupants of the ruins have no … Continue reading →

Mar 05, 2012 Why are animals used so widely in coats of arms? The familiar red dragon of Wales and the double-headed eagle of the House of Habsburg exemplify a widespread and familiar practice to embed animal figures in heraldic … Continue reading →

Feb 09, 2012 ‘Plasma mythology’ may be defined as the study of plasmas, specifically near-earth plasmas, in human traditions, such as mythology and proto-scientific records. If this is a discipline, one of its most notable pioneers must be the French … Continue reading →

  Feb 07, 2012 Where does the idea of constellations come from? And how do these arbitrary groups of stars relate to mythology? The argument shapes up nicely in the light of traditions that name specific constellations as mythical creatures … Continue reading →

  Feb 06, 2012 Where does the idea of constellations come from? And how do these arbitrary groups of stars relate to mythology? The early 20th century saw the ascendancy of a short-lived movement in scholarship called ‘Pan-Babylonianism’, soon bemoaned … Continue reading →

Feb 02, 2012 History repeats itself – and that includes the history of science. Back in 1879, the very notion of ‘prehistoric cave art’ was unheard of. The famous Palaeolithic art galleries inside such caves as at Altamira, Trois Frères … Continue reading →

Dec 28, 2011 Science and folk tradition are supposed to be strictly separate domains of knowledge, but in practice they often shade into each other. The image shown above right attempts to map the entire visible universe. The galaxies tend … Continue reading →