The Tao of Armageddon
When something strange pops up at Megiddo, the site of Armageddon as prophesied in the Bible, people tend to take notice. The discovery of an early Christian church on the site is not strange in itself, but there is something odd about the mosiac on the floor (dating to the third or fourth century C.E.). Or rather, several somethings. For starters, the workmanship is exceptional, and the style is notable different from the vast majority of Christian art from the era, which tends toward figure portraits, illustrations of stories and very simple symbols, all often rendered in a very primitive style. The content of the mosaic is even more interesting, however. I'm not a full-blow expert in early Christian art, but I'm more interested than most, and I've never seen anything quite like this. On the other hand, the design is very heavily Roman in nature, which makes sense for what is possibly the earliest of Roman-Christian churches.
 UPDATE: As you can see, I've gotten some better images of the eight symbols. I've quickly enhanced them as best I can for overall structure, but I'll post again later this week with some more detailed, higher quality photo images. Meanwhile, check them out... If anyone sees a Davinci Code or the Merovingian seal, well, feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post... END UPDATE
From a purely subjective standpoint, no doubt biased by my own leanings, I immediately noticed a structural similarity to the ba gua diagram from the i-Ching. Historically, the yin-yang motif has often been depicted as two fish swimming around each other, similar to what's seen here. The Megiddo mosaic also features eight square design elements, each unique, arranged around the center, similar to the arrangement of the eight trigrams in the ba gua. More on this at a later date.
Although some early Christian designs also show two fish in various arrangements, I haven't seen the particular arrangement used in this mosaic. Similar to this design, one fish is scaled (dark) and the other is not (light). I don't know the significance of the "two fish" design in its original context, but I will update this posting when I can sit down and research it some more. Feel free to post a comment or e-mail me if you know more about this topic, or if you've seen the overall design before.
The eight designs surrounding the fish are even more curious. Unfortunately, the photos available so far don't offer a head-on view of the full mosaic in good detail (although I'm sure more are coming). What we can see of the image is very interesting. The design is unusual in that the eight surrounding designs are not symmetrical or repeating, which seems to suggest the arrangement could be meaningful. It's not a sure thing -- there are various Roman works with assymetrical designs or broken symmetry.
One element contains a variation on the swastika, a symbol which was meaningful in Eastern philosophy and many other cultures long before the Nazis usurped it for their own purposes. Another element is reminiscent of Celtic knotwork (although similiar designs are seen in Greek and Roman architecture of the period). Others include different arrangements of simple checkerboard-type geometric designs and what appears to be a flower-like structure. The eight design elements are not consistent with each other, or with the central fish illustration, in terms of style or content.
The Celtic-style knot and the flower-like arrangement of four vesica pisces are both fairly common designs in Roman (non-Christian) mosaics of a very high quality. Aside from the obvious overall craftsmanship, those elements do suggest the floor was a professional job. The swastika symbol was not uncommon in Roman art, but the variant seen here is fairly unusual. I haven't seen the other designs in Roman mosaic work, but maybe someone out there can fill us in.
In the meantime, here are some relevant links to things I've written related to the ba gua design, and the design as it was recently featured on ABC's Lost (plus an article I wrote on Armageddon for good measure):
King Wen's Hidden 108
LOST: The Logo in Desmond's Hatch
LOST: New Dharma Logo, New Thoughts
LOST: Mysterious Dharma Video Hits Web
I-Ching
Taoism
Armageddon
Posted by J.M. Berger || Permalink
Post a Comment
0 Comments:
|
