The country of Tartaria Far, "snowy and long-suffering" Tartaria, the clairvoyant devoted many pages of his "Oracle", for he saw her important part world: "What will be in Tartaria will respond throughout the world." He argued that from 1925 the "devilish" would rule in Tartaria.

The Country and Nationalism The country and nothing but the country (neither nation, nor religion, nor anything else) is the true basis of nationalism. All other components are secondary and are of an auxiliary nature, only the country is paramount and essential. Many completely different

Chapter Nine "The country of love is a great country..." Death and time reign on earth. You do not call them masters. Everything, whirling, disappears into the mist. Only the sun of Love is motionless. Vladimir Solovyov "God is love" is the truth. This love enters the heart and carries a huge

0 popular in narrow circles song " Ugly Elsa"Group Crematorium: " We all live to die tomorrow", makes us think not only about death, but also about the fact that everything around is stupid, meaningless, and amazingly dull. As you understand, in these lines there is nothing but the truth, because every creature living on Earth now will be dead. ... sooner or later. Therefore, from ancient times, our ancestors were worried about the question of what is beyond the line separating the world of the living from the departed. Many great minds struggled with this riddle, but in the end they found out the truth only by presenting their soul to God, still leaving us in the dark.Today we will partially touch on this side of human existence, and talk about such a phenomenon as Land of the Dead which means you can read a little below. Before continuing, I want to draw your attention to a couple more sensible publications on random topics. For example, what does Slime mean, how to understand the word Sammari, what is De Jure, translation of Rendezvous, etc.
So let's continue what is the land of the dead? This concept, according to some historians, was born in ancient Egypt, and was originally called " Amentis", which can be translated as " west".

The country of the dead for roleplayers is a place on the territory of the game where conditionally dead players are located, who were killed as a result of the fighting of roleplaying.

Land of the Dead- this is the space, that plane of being, where the souls of dead people go.

This concept of the afterlife has been familiar to almost all cultures, civilizations and religions. Unlike our time, in that distant era, the Land of the Dead was considered a real, physical place, that is, a space where even mortals can come in case of urgent need, see their ancestors, and in isolated cases try to return them to the world of the living. In Egypt, even the architecture contains elements of the division between the living and the dead. This is especially noticeable on the western and eastern banks of the Nile. Remember, we mentioned above that, according to the Egyptians, the west was considered the side where the dead people went. If you know this, then you can find differences between buildings on different banks of this great river. And the water itself is a barrier that separates these two worlds. Therefore, there is nothing strange in the fact that in ancient Egypt east coast perceived as " land of the living"because that's where the sun rose. It was on " Eastern"Dwelling houses and temples were built on the side, in contrast to" Western where tombs, tombs, and funerary temples were built.

The Egyptians were convinced that people enter the other world with their belongings. This is easily proved, since the burials of people are still found in excavations along with their household items.

By reading this article, you have learned what does land of the dead mean, and now you will not get into a difficult situation if you suddenly find this terrible phrase again.

The Egyptians believed that the land of the dead was in the west (after all, the sun set there), so the funeral took place on west bank Nile. The most influential dead were taken there on huge boats. At the entrance to the tomb, the priests performed the necessary rituals, including the rite of "opening the mouth." This ceremony allowed the soul of the deceased to connect with the body. The priest touched his face with sacred objects. Those invited to the funeral dined in the tomb, and then the sarcophagus was placed in the burial chamber, the lights were turned off, the tomb was closed, and the guests dispersed. It was believed that at night the soul would leave the mummy and go to the lands.

After the funeral, the tomb was closed. The builders tried to carefully disguise the entrances to it - they laid the real entrance with a stone, they made fake ones. The inner corridors of the tombs were blocked with stone blocks. The doors of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were walled up. But no measures stopped those who devastated all the pyramids and most rock tombs many years ago.

The path to the ground was long and difficult. Moving west, following the setting sun, the spirit wandered until it reached the magical labyrinth. Inside the labyrinth were guarded gates. Gatekeeper snakes opened the gate only to the spirit that solved many riddles. The answers to these riddles could be found in the Book of the Dead, an illustrated collection of incantations and prayers that was placed in the coffin of every deceased.

The book "The Word of the Aspirant to the Light" or "Chapters on the Progress After the Day" is better known as the "Book of the Dead". Entire life ancient egyptian served as a preparation for the journey to afterworld. The Book of the Dead, which was placed in the coffin of each deceased, consisted of teachings and spells that help him not to go astray in a difficult, so unlike the earthly, other world.

After passing through the labyrinth, the spirit of the deceased entered the Hall of Two Truths. Here, before Osiris, the spirit was asked to pronounce "negative
truth" - a list of crimes that he did not commit. Finally, it was the turn of the god Anubis, who weighed the heart of the deceased. On one scale he put the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth, on the other - the heart.

Thoth, the god-scribe, depicted with the head of an ibis, announced the verdict and wrote it down on a scroll. Those whose hearts were lighter than the feather of truth were allowed into the domain of Osiris, which is very similar to the lands of living people. If the heart was burdened with sins, then its owner was eaten by the monster Amt - a lion with the head of a crocodile.

The Egyptians believed that if life after death is possible, then it is also possible to die twice. Those who died a second time could no longer hope for a rebirth. The second death could be caused by the destruction of the mummified body and led to the death of the spirit. Fortunately, in emergency the spirit could dwell in a statue, a portrait, a written name, or even a memory. Only if someone completely forgot, his or her soul finally died. Sometimes those who committed terrible crimes in earthly life were punished with a second death. This punishment meant the destruction of all references to the deceased - images, statues and inscriptions with the name.

Explain the meaning of the words: cave painting, witchcraft, soul, "land of the dead", religious beliefs.

• Cave painting - images in caves, made by ancient people, one of the types of primitive art.
• Witchcraft is the practice of magic as a craft in which the sorcerer declares contact with supernatural forces (demons, ancestral spirits, nature, and others).
• Soul - according to religious and some philosophical beliefs, an immortal substance, an intangible essence, in which the divine nature and essence of man are expressed.
• "Land of the Dead" - according to religious beliefs, this is the afterlife, where the soul of a deceased person goes.
• Religious beliefs - appeared in primitive people beliefs in witchcraft, in the soul, in life after death.

Test yourself

1. How was cave painting discovered?

In 1879, the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino-Sans de Sautuola, along with his 9-year-old daughter, accidentally stumbled upon the Altamira Cave in Northern Spain, the vaults of which were decorated with many drawings of animals made by ancient people. The discovery, which had no analogues, shocked the researcher extremely and encouraged him to study it closely. Subsequently, works of primitive art were found in many other caves in which ancient people lived.

2. Why did primitive artists depict mammoths, bison, deer, horses? What role did these animals play in people's lives?

The earliest artists painted the animals they hunted. The authors managed to convey the exact appearance and character of the animals: deer were shown to be sensitive and alert, horses were fast and swift, mammoths were massive, heavy with a high convex nape. These animals are playing huge role in the life of primitive people who used their meat for food, veins - as fastening material, bones - for making arrowheads and other tools, skins - for making clothes.

3. What ancient religious beliefs do you know?

Ancient people believed in hunting magic, in the human soul and the "land of the dead", where the souls of ancestors go.

4. How did primitive people imagine the life of their ancestors in the “land of the dead”?

Primitive people imagined the life of the souls of their ancestors in the "land of the dead" similar to their own life. The souls of the ancestors move to a distant "country of the dead", live there tribal communities, hunt, fish and collect edible fruits. Burying a relative, people put in his grave everything necessary for traveling to the “land of the dead” and for living in this country: food and strong shoes, clothes, weapons, jewelry.

Think and Discuss

1. What did the artist want to tell about when he created the scene with the bison and the defeated hunter (see the picture on p. 19)? Guess what preceded what is depicted.

Probably, the artist depicted the story of one of the hunts in which a member of the community died, but the bison was defeated, while the hunters managed to avoid meeting the rhinoceros. Perhaps this is part of the so-called primitive "hunting magic", and the drawing symbolizes and predicts a successful hunt, avoiding danger from larger animals, but also shows the inevitability of victims during the hunt.

2. Why did primitive artists sometimes depict a hand on the body of an animal painted in a cave?

Perhaps this is how primitive artists sought to show the power of man over animals, i.e. domesticated animal.

3. For what purposes do archaeologists dig up ancient graves? What and why can be found in them? (See drawing on page 19.)

Primitive people believed that, when dying, the soul of a relative goes to a distant "land of the dead", where he continues to live, hunt and enjoy the fruits of hunting and gathering. So that the path of the soul to the "land of the dead" and afterlife was good, people put in the grave everything that the deceased might need along the way: clothes, weapons, jewelry. Archaeologists are digging up ancient graves to learn more about the deceased person. From the bones you can determine who the person was, how he looked, how he lived, how he died. And according to the things in the grave, scientists can describe the life and level of development of the community. The totality of such data allows you to find out where and how the ancestors appeared. modern man, to determine the path that mankind has passed in its development.

Summarize and draw conclusions

Who are called primitive people? Where and when, according to scientists, did the most ancient people live?

Primitive people are called representatives of numerous humanoid species that lived before the era of the invention of writing, after which it becomes possible historical research based on the study written sources. Man passed long haul evolution from primitive apes, Australopithecus, Homo habilius, Homo erectus (Homo erectus) to Homo sapiens.

Human evolution has 5 million years. ancient ancestor modern man - a skilled man (Homo habilius) appeared in East Africa 2.4 million years ago. He knew how to make fire, build simple shelters, collect plant food, work stone and use primitive stone tools. Lots of stone tools various shapes and sizes were found in the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania).

A skilled man lived only in Africa. Homo erectus was the first to leave Africa and penetrate into Asia, and then to Europe. It appeared 1.85 million years ago and disappeared 400 thousand years ago. A successful hunter, he invented many tools, acquired a home and learned how to use fire. The tools used by Homo erectus were larger than the tools of the early hominids (man and his closest ancestors). Used in their manufacture new technology- upholstery of stone blanks on both sides. They represent the next stage of culture - the Acheulean, named after the first finds in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens in France.

Compare ancient people and reasonable people. What is the difference between them? What is the similarity?

Ancient man very much resembled a monkey. He had a rough face with a broad flattened nose, a heavy lower jaw no chin, receding forehead. Above the eyebrows was a roller. People's gait was still not quite straight, jumping, Long hands hung below the knees. People didn't know how to talk yet. Homo sapiens differed from the most ancient people in a number of anatomical features, relatively high level the development of material and non-material culture (including the manufacture and use of tools), the ability to articulate speech and developed abstract thinking.

However, the most ancient people and reasonable people also had similarities. They all lived in groups, carried out joint activities on the extraction of food, the arrangement of dwellings and protection from predators.

Who were the earliest artists on earth? What do you know about the religious beliefs of primitive people?

Ancient artists depicted animals, people and hunting scenes in the caves in which they lived. Due to the antiquity of rock paintings, there is no reliable evidence of the reasons for the creation and significance of cave painting. Modern researchers have a number of hypotheses regarding their meaning; Science has not been able to develop a consensus on the purpose and meanings that ancient artists put into their works. Some scholars suggest that the rock paintings served as part of the rituals of "hunting magic" and, according to the ideas of primitive people, were supposed to bring good luck in hunting. Other scholars, drawing on the examples of tribes that still live by hunting and gathering, believe that cave painting is part of the shamanic beliefs of primitive people, and that the drawings were created by tribal shamans who entered a state of trance and captured their visions, possibly trying to get some special powers.

Primitive people had their own religious beliefs. They believed in hunting magic, performing rituals before hunting. They also believed in the existence of a human soul, which flew out of the body while the person was sleeping, and lived own life. And when a person died, his soul went to a distant "land of the dead", where he continued to live and hunt. In order to ensure the long journey of the soul to the afterlife, the ancient people put in the grave of the deceased everything that he could need in life after death: clothes, weapons, jewelry, etc.