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Word Count: 4149 For Antony Aveni, archaeoastronomy consists not only in finding astronomically significant artefacts but also about highlighting the possibilities that the sites investigated might not have any astronomical and astrological significance as well. 1 Regarding the methodology to pursue such a research Aveni notes the problem of the semi-hard facts of archaeology in need for illumination from the hard facts of the phenomenal world. 2 Nevertheless, Aveni concludes that in the process of interdisciplinary admixture of astronomical and anthropological observations, there is always the possibility one discipline to overtop the delicate balance and he particularly mentions how ethnological data cannot be treated so rigorously in a quantitative mode.3 It seems then quite natural for him to question any careful measurement to extreme arc minute accompanied by a rather sloppy and negligent historical precision. 4 In this respect Clive Ruggles work, was an example of combining the benefit of rigid data in order to secure certain patterns within archaeological evidence in relevance with ethno-historical information. 5 Efrosyni Boutsikas is a scholar that adds in this enquiry on methodology, the element of profound knowledge of mythological narratives of the investigated cultures and cultic ritual but under the thorough examination of the reliability of the sources.6

Regarding the current topic of archaeoastronomical research of the Leyphkopetra sanctuary of the Mother of Gods in Greece, this can be located within a general debate running for over two centuries among scholars. In this argument, modern scholars tend to question old established ideas over the astronomical features of ancient temples and architecture in general such as Boutsikas thesis versus Heinrich Nissens (1839-1912) and Francis Cranmer Penroses (1817-1903), among others. 7 Or of Michael E. Smith versus the definite astronomical hypothesis over Maya city plans advocated by Wendy Ashmore and Jeremy Sabloff . 8 Finally another such debatable topic of argument was Ruggles questioning of
1

Antony Aveni (ed), Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, (Boulder CO: University Press of Colorado, pp. 826, 2008), p. 7, [Hereafter Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology]. 2 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 158. 3 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 159. 4 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 159. 5 Clive Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, pp.285, 1999), p. 78, [Hereafter Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland]. 6 Efrosyni Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult: An application of archaeoastronomy to Greek religious architecture, cosmologies and landscape, PhD thesis for the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, university of Leicester, February, 2007, 223 pp, p. 33, http://kent.academia.edu/EfrosyniBoutsikas/Papers/329843/Astronomy_and_Ancient_Gr eek_Cult_An_Application_of_Archaeoastronomy_to_Greek_Religious_Architecture_Co smologies_and_Landscapes, [Accessed on 18 February 2012], [Hereafter Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult].
7

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 12.

Michael E. Smith, Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 2003), 221-228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557596, [Accessed on 14 February 2012]

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Word Count: 4149 Alexander Thoms (1894-1985) paradigm which, tended to close peoples eyes, to other possible astronomical features besides the already examined by older research. 9 Nevertheless, Aveni argues that on the research of cultures, quite or totally unknown to investigators, a method of inclusive approach is preferred more than focusing on deficiencyoriented systems of belief; this may also be useful in the way approach to the work of other scholars in archaeoastronomy is attempted. 10 Lionel Sims is another scholar that has engaged in such an attempt to complement past views with his theory on Stonehenge and the possibility of having been the place of merging or political manipulation of two contradicting cosmo-visions the lunar and solar religions; thus questioning past theories of solstitial-only orientation.11 In such a mode, this paper will proceed as well, since Aveni too refers to such a mental exercise of synthesizing already published data as helpful in organizing and redirecting questions for future study, of course under the light of recent and certain measurements on the site under discussion. 12 The underlying pattern of this current study is possibly more elaborately evident in Avenis question whether the scientific community has underplayed the role of the use of environment, architecture and hierophany in propagating knowledge of the social order. 13 Nevertheless Smith notes that for some scholars research for astronomical features in archaeological sites reveals more probably about the minds of modern researchers than about the minds of the ancients and thus he suggests more rigorous and explicit methods of archaeology as well. 14 In this mode, Smith adds that the inverse situation may be possibly helpful besides focusing on intended astronomical alignments on sites, which is that apparently meaningful patterns may have arisen from random factors unrelated to any cosmological ideas of the builders. 15 Boutsikas notes that due to Penrose and Nissens work researchers do not engage in discussions on the significance of a potential astronomical orientation of ancient Greek religious structures while recent studies presuppose such orientation without justification. 16 Instead, Boutsikas suggests that an improved methodology would combine archaeological evidence, historical and literary sources, and archaeoastronomical data collection and analysis. 17

10

Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, p. 149. Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 254.

Lionel Sims, The Solarization of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (June 2006), 16 : pp 191-207,
11

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=441785, accessed on 5 July 2012]. 12 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 270. 13 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 270. 14 Michael E. Smith, Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 2003), pp. 221-228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557596, [Accessed on 14 February 2012], p. 221, [Hereafter Smith, Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans]. 15 Smith, Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans, p. 223. 16 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 33. 17 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 47.

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Word Count: 4149 It is known that a substantial surviving written record of astronomical and astrological observation and naming regarding female celestial figures has been the tablet from Akkadian ruler Sargon around 2334-2279 BCE with reference to planet Venus. 18 Venus was the visible representative of Inanna or Ishtar the Queen of Heavens whose myth was that she descended through seven gates to the underworld following her consort the shepherd king Dulmuzi or Tammuz.19 This Venus tablet may have been, according to Nickolas Campion, the first written evidence of subjection of divine power to natural mathematical or cosmic laws since the cyclic appearance and disappearance of celestial deities was something observable, predictable and in a certain way ruling over deities.20 This Mesopotamian culture was not so unfamiliar to the Greek world since due to the Hittite Empire and its interaction with the Egyptian culture evidence of astrological and astronomical interest has been abundant in the wider Asia minor region around and after the fifteenth century BCE, whilst Indian influences cannot be excluded as well.21 Campion recognizes the Greek world as, on a crossroads in the trade roots of ideas where not only the Mesopotamian literary tradition but also the northern astronomical oral lore was probably accessible. 22 This knowledge, object of ideological trading along the wider region, must have been for the inhabitants, unusual, unique, innovative and perfect or monstrous according to the circumstances, as Mircae Eliade notes.23 Eliade locates such beliefs within the larger and higher religious forms and systems where elementary hierophanies fit in; also present there, are whole traditional theories, not reducible to elementary theories, as for example myths about human condition or underlying various rites and moral notions. 24 For Michael Hoskin there is a false dichotomy between ritual and folk practice on one hand and high-level predictive astronomy on the other since he recognizes in Hesiods account on farmers use of a constellations heliacal rising to tell the season favorable to planting, a predictive nature.25 Aveni notes in this respect that setting up the ritual of the agricultural calendars can be one of the principal motives for cultures to practice sky watching. 26 For Boutsikas stars had been pivotal in the formation of Greek philosophical and cosmological thought such as Anaximanders (c.610c.546 BCE) reference to them as cycles of fire. 27 Boutsikas argues that Greek astronomy was expressed both by pre-scientific and scientific trends and that the Platonic Socrates stressed its purpose within the research aspect and in pursue of truth and not in its common

18

Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, 2 Vols, (London: Continuum, pp.388, 2008), I, p. 51, [Hereafter Campion, A History of Western Astrology I].
19 20

Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 52. Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 66-67. 21 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 132. 22 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 132. 23 Mircae Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), p. 13, [Hereafter Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion] 24 Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 30. 25 Michael Hoskin (edit), The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 10, [Hereafter Hoskin, The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy]
26 27

Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 71.

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 2.

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Word Count: 4149 use from farmers, sailors and generals. 28 Besides this dismissive attitude towards practical use and the vague pursue of truth there can be detected a geometrical - partly Pythagorean and partly Aristotelian - relationship of the Greeks with the celestial dome and through Hesiodic naturalism and Hippocratic medicine, Hellenistic astrology was the climax in this relationship. 29 Thus with few exceptions the Greeks preferred theoretical models to the evidence of empirical observation in their astrological practices. 30 Besides what we can historically realize through the study of literary sources and archaeological evidence the challenge for Kim Malville is to understand the ancient skywatchers and be able to see the heavens through their eyes. 31 One of the functions of ancient astronomy Malville adds must have been the providing of authority to emperors and kings combined with a variety of techniques for preserving and transmitting of knowledge. 32 This non-religious approach to astronomy and astrology can be classified according to Eliade as Kratophanies, that is the investment of political and social power with cosmic sacredness perpetuated through ritual and rhythmic life. 33 Under this pattern, many cultures have transformed their homes and temples into miniature universes, which were smaller and more manageable than the larger reality. 34 Mysterious in her cycles of life and death with her power to provide and take it away, Mother Nature is an inscrutable benefactress not always benign or fully predictable, especially in terms of agriculture and climatic change according to Malville.35 Overlying this uncertainty the regularity of the sun and the planets in the apparently unchanging order of the heavens must have led Plato and Aristotle to separate it from the decay of the earth.36 This division did not inhibit Greeks to see the heavens in anthropomorphic terms with Plato stressing in Epinomis of the divine nature of stars and Stoics influenced by Heracletos who held that human beings were transformed into gods and then to stars, suggesting thus a strong relation of astronomical philology and religious belief. 37 Boutsikas adds that divine presence or epiphany was sought in natural surroundings with the belief that divinity of the skies was a primary agent in this process.38 This belief, was also incorporated in the geometry of city planning and the organization of social life with the example of Anaximander (c.610-c.546).39 Almost all the sky was depicted in Greek mythology and vice versa; the myths were mapped onto the heavens. 40 This was easily demonstrated in the catasterism myths of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Orion, Perseus, Andromeda, Centaur Cheiron, that is Sagittarious; Aquarious who was Ganymedes and

28 29

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 3. Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 217. 30 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 76. 31 J. McKim Malville, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, (Boulder CO: Johnson Books, 166 pp., 2008), p. 3, [Hereafter Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest]. 32 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 4-5. 33 Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 14-15. 34 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 35 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 36 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 37 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 3. 38 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 4. 39 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 5. 40 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 47.

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Word Count: 4149 certain other constellations with names of gods, heroes and creatures. 41 The foreground of Greek mythology incorporated a wider geographical region than Greece proper, suggesting probably for religion what Campion notes about Greek philosophy, science and rationalism; that it must have not developed as a reaction to any superstitious neighbours but by appropriating and developing world-views. 42 Nevertheless and besides Mesopotamian dominion in literary records on astronomical and astrological observation, during the fifth century and almost contemporary with these Asian Minors aforementioned activities, Greek sky-watchers made observations in Thrace, Macedonia, Cyclades and Athens apparently using zodiacal signs to describe planetary positions. 43 Two famous astronomers, related to the technology of early parapegmata in this period, were Meton and Euctemon. 44 The fundamental difference of the Greek thought on astronomical observations must have been the Platonic ideal Cosmos upon which the natural world should conform, namely the EAE paradigm over the PCP paradigm, where empirically correlating of celestial patterns with events could provide helpful information through recognition of a pattern, practiced by the Mesopotamian cultures.45 The most remarkable evidence of the sophistication of the technical culture by the second century BCE was the Antikythera mechanism attributed to Geminus of Rhodes containing thirty seven gears predicting sun and moon eclipses and Hipparchus contemporary discovered lunar irregularities and the planets movements.46

Within this context of a syncretic cosmology in philosophy and religion the trends in Greek mythology related in a certain degree with astronomical observation followed the general flow from polyphonic pantheism towards the Zoroastrian and Orphic monotheism of the all encompassing God Zeus and the fundamental duality expressed by the Eleatic philosopher Parmenides (515 BCE). 47 During the Hellenistic period (first quarter of fourth century BCE to the Roman conquest in the late first century BCE the admixture of cultures added to the astronomical and astrological beliefs and knowledge of the Greek world. 48 Philosopher Claudius Ptolemy lived in Alexandria around 90 AD in a scholarly environment where Gnostics, Hermeticists and members of the various mystery schools were advancing astrology. 49 Ptolemy provided a scientific basis for astrology, involved with the natural causes and effects of heavenly influences while resisted any spiritualizing trends of Hermeticism and Mithraism. 50

This was the environment as constructed by historical data relating to the Greek world of astronomical and astrological knowledge related particularly to religious belief and practice as the possible background of the development of the certain cult here examined. According to Kaliope Hatzinikolaou this is an old deity known as Mother connected with the
41 42

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 48. Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 128. 43 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 128 44 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 148. 45 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 151. 46 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 204. 47 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 140,142. 48 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209. 49 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209. 50 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209.

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Word Count: 4149 indigenous Mother Earth aspect in the Central (or Upper according to Hatzinikolaou) Macedonias , Phrygian Kingdom. 51 The Phrygians with colonies in Asia Minor related according to Euripides to Troy advanced it to an ancient female cult and returned to the Greek mainland as the more elaborate goddess Kybele or Kubaba. 52 Identification with the Greek myth of goddess Rhea was natural, the Titaness daughter of Ouranos the sky not the planet Uranus - and Mother Earth; Rhea married Chronus and bore Zeus who mutilated his father for devouring his children. 53 Kybele was named also /Oreia since she was worshiped on mountain summits; equated with Venus during and after Hellenistic period was concelebrated with the Attis cult, the shepherd who hunting a bore, dies and descends to the underworld. 54 Athanasios Rizakis and Ioannis Touratsoglou mention how the Attis cult was easily incorporated in the local belief system since Hercules the hunter-hero was related to the Macedonian ancestry.55 In her service, the goddess had the Kourytes or Kourybandes.56 The cult comprised certain orgiastic/katharctic/purifying elements and the Goddess was often depicted with either Attis or Dioscuroi(Zeus servants)/Gemini. 57

According to the archaeologist Liana Stephani, participant to the primary excavation that revealed the Leyphkopetra settlement contingent to the temple, the site had been inhabited from prehistoric copper Age (3600-1200 BCE) and later phases of iron Age (1200 BCE-300 AD) until Philip II and Hellenistic period.58 Located on the southern foothills of Mount Vermion with vegetation and water supplies by the nearby Aliakmon River the place must have been stationary for the ancestral Macedons emigrating from the northern, cold Epirus towards the warmer seas of the Aegean.59 During second millennium BCE there is further

51

Kaliope G. Hatzinikolaou, Phd thesis on, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity (Elimeia, Eordaia, Orestiada, Lygistida), (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University , 351 pp., 2007), page 291, [Hereafter Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity]
52

Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 291292. 53 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 292. 54 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 292. 55 Athanasios Rizakis and Ioannis Touratsoglou, Cults in Upper Macedonia, Tradition and Innovations, in Ancient Macedonia: Sixth International Symposium, Vol. 2, (Thessaloniki: Institute of Balkan Studies, 1999), pp. 949-965, p. 953, [Hereafter Rizakis Touratsoglou, Cults in Upper Macedonia, Tradition and Innovations, in Ancient Macedonia]
56 57

Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. 58 Liana Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion: The example of Leykopetra Himathia, in The Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace 16, 706 pp., (Thessaloniki: Adam-Beleni, 2004), pp. 531-542, p. 531, [Hereafter Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion].
59

See Index, Photo 1/ Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 531.

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Word Count: 4149 expansion and resettling. 60 Towards the sixth to fourth centuries BCE impressive sevenmeter long habitual buildings are developing, with space for temporary food storage, elaborate pottery and an organized copper-melting point. 61 For Stephani this was not a typical agricultural settlement due to its long tradition and continuous participation in local historical events.62 The settlement along with the temple was definitely in constant communication with the contingent ancient town Veroia known from the New Testament as one of the Macedonian cities where Apostle Paul taught the Christian dispensation. 63 In Veroia the Macedon Common, a prefectural political centre had its base which during the Roman rule was the second most significant district after Thessaloniki. 64 From the inscriptions of liberation acts that were found in the Mothers sanctuary regarding slaves, it is related that the temples priests were all after imperial names that is the most authoritative recognition of citizenship and social status. 65

In 205/205 BCE the cult is transported to Rome as Mater Magna celebrated during spring festivals and from there expanded to the whole empire. 66 While during the third century BCE women presided over the cult, later on the second century AD male priests were established called Galloi or Mitragyrtes practicing in public view. 67 The goddess was often depicted with a fortress type crown signifying perhaps her faculty as patron of the settlement while most frequently sanctuaries of Zeus Hipsistos were found near her sanctuaries.68 It is also significant that the Leyphkopetra Mother according to inscriptions found in the site was always regarded as indigenous that is besides any transmigration of cultic beliefs. 69 Nevertheless similar examples of local syncretism and production of religious belief is also evident in southern Greek island Crete with definite relations with the Phoenician and Egyptian worlds. 70According to Mpousboukis, a Grammic A (protoHellenic writing) inscription found there around the fifteen hundred BCE is also relevant.71
60 61

Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 533. Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 535-6. 62 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 536.
63 64

Acts, Chapter seventeen, The New testament, (Athens: O Sotir, pp. 1064, 1986), p. 552. Dimitios K. Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State (cinitas Romana) and their distribution in the Roman prefecture of Macedonia. II: The case of Beroia, seat of the Macedon Common, Macedonia Studies Company, http://www.ems.gr/analytikoskatalogos-ekdoseon/makedonika/makedonika-27.html . [Accessed on 2 July 2012], pp. 327-382, p. 327, [Herafter Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State]. 65 Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State, p. 334,338. 66 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 294. 67 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 294. 68 See Index, Photo 2/Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 208, 299. 69 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 539. 70 Antonios Mpousboukis, The Ma Mother in Edessa and wider Macedonian space, pp. 111-123 and Miltiades B Hatzopoulos, The Cult of Goddess Ma in Edessa, pp. 125132, in G. Kiutuskas (edit.), Municipality of Edessa, Proceedings of the A Pan-Hellenic Scientific Symposium, Edessa and its Region: History and Culture, (Edessa: 4, 5 and 6 December 1992), (Edessa: Vourgoundis Printing, 1995), p. 113, [Hereafter Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother]. 71 Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 113.

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Word Count: 4149 This inscription is bearing the dedication, Wanakasi, Nopina Ma, Siru Te; or To the dominant goddesses, the bride goddess Mother and the divine Sun. 72 Bousboukis confirms that the cult of the Mother of the Gods as definitely evinced in the inscriptions from the Leyphkopetra site, was the personification of spiritualized earth in its wildest aspect thus accompanied in certain depictions by two lions. 73 The idea of the divine mother was a link with the human soul and the archetype of the unconscious reflected on her, as the opposing entity and the fear of the dominion she expressed. 74 She is also frequently depicted with a pole in her head instead of fortress symbolic of the Mothers womb in its higher cosmic dimension relating the human head, the highest material part with the cosmic spheres. 75 The most definite reference to the planetary relationship of the certain cult, can be regarded a single inscription, No 139 from the site, which concludes the liberating act with an invocation to the Sun and the Moon ( ). 76The text translated is, To the Mother of Gods Indigenous dedicated we wish SO NOT of the aforementioned child neither seller nor lender but be of the Indigenous serving as it can Sun and Moon.77

Regarding the Archaeoastronomical survey of the sanctuary of the Mother of Gods in Leyphkopetra the rectangular form of the temple was measured to be almost 24 meters length and 11 meters wide. The primary orientation according to measurements with a magnetic compass were East-West with temples Adytum, the innermost sanctuary facing westward; that is the rear side exactly opposite to the four-column entrance facing eastward.78 Magnetic bearing of the sidelines of the temple were taken starting from North and turning clockwise around a central point for each of the four sides of the building. 79 It was identified that local positive magnetic declination of 3, 51 imposed a correction Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 113. See Index Photo 3 & 4/Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 116. 74 Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 118. 75 Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 119, 124. 76 Harzopoulos et all, Inscreptions Du Sanctuaire De La Mere Des Dieux Autochtone De Leukopetra (Macedoine), (Athens: Centre of Greek and Roman Antiquity , 364 pp., 2000), p187, http://helios-eie.ekt.gr/EIE/handle/10442/7377, [Accessed on 2 July 2012], p.187, [Hereafter Hatzopoulos et all, Inscreptions]. 77 Harzopoulos et all, Inscreptions, p.187./ Inscription No 139, [ ] 4 [ ] [ JIATOPOCAN [ ] [] 8 [ ] [ ], ' [ ]HC [] 12 [ ]OIC ",
72 73

78 79

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, Glossary, p. xiii. Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, Glossary, p. 50.

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Word Count: 4149 pushing true north in a same angle towards north-western horizon. Accordingly, the four directions should follow the same correction in relation to the directions of the temple. 80 Then the mountainous landscape was measured for inclination variety that is the vertical angle of the observer and the different features of the horizon. 81 The most obvious feature is a slightly observable pit or swag of the opposite mountain line along the eastern alignment of the temple. 82 This mountain line is several hundred miles away and no possibility of conducting counter-measurements from up there was considered essential since the distance, non-accessibility and no other technical aligning point between, indicated such need. The rear sanctuary or the Adytum facing westward, was carved on schist-rock and there is no evidence that windows would allow sight to the horizon; so celestial observation towards this direction could be possible - if any - only from the opposite entrance side. 83 The horizon features were then put into a sketch in order to note graphically the measurements in a single image with the temples ground plan at the center.84 Totally two visits on the site were conducted one late April during day-light and with the presence of the excavation crew when all the aforementioned measurements were done and one on mid- May full Moon in the surrounding site.

Then the coordinates of the site from Google Earth were cross-referenced with the chief archaeologist Ioannis Graikos; whose personal help was available through all this current research. Then with the particular coordinates, that is 402609,67 and 221041,10 certain simulations of the horizon activity in the past were examined using the Stellarium software. The chronological checking-points were set according to the aforementioned archaeological data as following. Four thousand BCE was the first point indicating the definite settling of human activity. One thousand five hundred was the second point as the period with certain changes migration, wars, political organization - in the general Greek region. 750 BCE successively, when archaic period brought changes in religious and national consciousness and finally the ending Hellenistic (0-146 BC) and the Roman rule (146 BCE-500 AD) were regarded as one period with almost the same religious-philosophical environment. These time-brackets were useful in order to locate the specific chronological shifts in the alignments of astronomical features with the temples orientation as related to known historical changes. It was identified that the temple was facing 3,51 southward the true east where the rising sun of late March tended to align as ages passed towards 750 BCE.85 The month coincides with the aforementioned festivals of the Mother celebrated in Rome. During those days temple doors would open allowing the solar light to reach the Adytum. 86 The celestial drama of the cult may be placed on the opposite direction though, since towards the western horizon the Constellation Virgo pulled by the double Constellation Leo (Major and Minor Leo) would follow Orion the hunter going down in the underworld after the Constellation of the Bull. This would acquire specific importance when during May when the sun would set somewhere near Constellation Taurus and the full moon would be rising opposite in the south-east horizon; a correlation but not a definite alignment of the two
80 81 82 83 84 85 86

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 55. Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 54.
See Index, Photos 5 & 6. See Index Photo 7.

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 54.

See Index, Photo 8.

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 12.

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Word Count: 4149 cardinal directions in this May full moon might have been charged with a certain cosmomagical significance. 87 This night under the moon light would have been most opportune for purifying ritual although each full moon would indicate minor festival rites as well. It was also identified through simulation that the Constellation Virgo aligned its setting during the ages finally with the west side of the temple from 750 BCE onwards moving its setting from north-west to south-west. On the north horizon again somewhere about 750 BCE onwards Polaris was acquiring its clock-star position and during the same period Bootees (the man with the sickle) was diminishing below horizon. This direction should have been identified, as the side of the shortest, dark and cold day of the year while on the opposite south direction of the temple the new moon would rise along with the sun as the counter event of the humiliated Bootes. Finally end-September the festival of the goddess would reach its climax with Mother (Constellation Virgo) rising victorious before the sun drawing upward the solar disk thus emerging again from the underworld. This drama in both its opposite directions east and west reaches its definite alignment with the temples direction within the Roman period somewhere between one to three hundred AD with archaeological data identifying its foundation near the fist-second century according to oral information from site-archaeologists. Inclinations of the surrounding horizon were measured into declination and compared with certain stars declination that are known as parts of the constellations involved in this observation thus deducing the software results to a more testable mode. The declination of the four cardinal directions of the temple were corrected with azimuth measurements increased to 3,51 magnetic declination.88

According to Boutsikas the majority of Greek cults were initially highlighted in a sanctified landscape with recognized hierophanies later to be established with buildings. 89 Moon phases could also have been observed since the Parapegmata of Eudoxous (408-355 BC) were already known from the fourth century BCE in the Greek world. Both the lunar and the solar calendar would have been in use, as well as the seasonal one. 90 As seen from the statue found in the nearby settlement the goddess was depicted with crescent moons on her crown among three rectangular bands possibly indicating the cardinal cross with the fourth on the back. 91 From the ethnographic research, the celestial activity around the site seems to coincide with the aforementioned mythology of goddess Rhea or Kybele. The vicious
87 88

Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 103.

Constell./Star Virgo/ Spica East Leo Maj/. Regulous East Gemmini Castor East Temples eastern Direction. Temples western direction Bootes /Arcturus north. Temples northern direction. Temples southern direction 4000 BCE Declination 18,22 21,80 19,55 3,47 62,57 49,87 56,14 -27,61 1500 BCE Declination 7,82 23,48 30,30 3,47 62,57 37,73 56,14 -27,61 750 BCE Declination 5,22 22,72 31,65 3,47 62,57 34,97 56,14 -27,61 100-400 AD Declination Not found from other source. Not found from other source. Not found from other source. 3,47 62,57 Not found from other source. 56,14 -27,61

89 90 91

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 187. Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 66.
See again Index, Photo 2.

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Word Count: 4149 husband Chronus (the sickle man) should diminish, for the Mother to save her son (Zeus) or lover (Orion-Hercules the hunter who was Zeus son) while helped from the overshadowing Dioscuroi (Zeus-helpers) that is Gemini actually above the drama on the west with Mother descending.92 Eliade would describe this drama as hierophanies in a dialectic phase among what is sacred and what is profane. 93 Aveni would probably see also how the certain aspects of the surrounding would appraise the environment assigning to it meaning. 94 Aveni finally would distinguish some dialectic too where the opposite phenomena could be simultaneously regarded contradictory and supportive to each other.95 According to Sims, this may be classified within the solarization of the moon and the gradual assimilation of the old female cult to the male state religion having already been established in northwestern Europe since Stonehenge. 96

The aforementioned correlation of the Mother of Gods with both Venus and Jupiter must have also been the object of cultic interest but there is not any written record, nor nay certain patterns were found within this research; but this could be the subject of future investigation along with updated archaeological data. Nevertheless, it has been obvious that Venus had been almost always (besides her eight-year cycle) present in the rising and setting of the sun either as drawing down Orion and Mother or as following her victoriously in the east. Aveni points that we can never reconstruct the original meaning of the objects retrieved by excavation and we should engage in a probabilistic argument keeping in mind only a partial similarity and never a complete or exact identity. 97 Regarding the particular cult, it may be related that it belongs to a wider need for the formation of world-views which according to Ruggles are expressing contemporary ideologies.98 When time and ideology are related to space, this landscape has a temporal use regarding its phenomenal relation with the cosmic cycles.99 Thus, the hierophanies emerge, then diminishing and regenerating elsewhere within different theoretical contexts.100 The inductions to archetypes then emerge, where temporality transforms into symbology eternal, thus having the Mother of the Gods reporting allegedly through Latin writer Apuleius, her real name Isis and thus claiming her universal status. 101 The temple here examined is to be partially restored in commemoration of its presence as the bright symbol of the Mother aspect and the sustainer of maters inherent divinity, to be observed from the passing-by international highway. 102

92 93

Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 13. 94 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 726. 95 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 486. 96 Lionel Sims, Solarization of the Moon: Manipulated knowledge at Stonehenge, abstact. 97 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 740. 98 Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, p. 78, 146. 99 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 185. 100 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 185. 101 Mpousdoukis, The Ma Mother, p. 111.
102

See Index, Photos of the restoration plan and the rest of photographic material.

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Bibliography:

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Word Count: 4149 Aveni Antony (ed), Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, Boulder CO: University Press of Colorado, 2008. Antony Aveni, Tropical Archaeoastronomy, Science, New Series, Vol. 213, No, 4504, Jul. 10, 1981. Boutsikas Efrosyni, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult: An application of archaeoastronomy to Greek religious architecture, cosmologies and landscape, PhD thesis for the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, university of Leicester, February, 223 pp. , 2007. Campion Nicholas, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, 2 Vols, London: Continuum, pp.388, 2008. Eliade Mircae, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. Hatzinikolaou G. Kaliope, Phd thesis on, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity (Elimeia, Eordaia, Orestiada, Lygistida), (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University , 351 pp., 2007)

Harzopoulos et all, Inscreptions Du Sanctuaire De La Mere Des Dieux Autochtone De Leukopetra (Macedoine), Athens: Centre of Greek and Roman Antiquity , 364 pp., 2000. Hatzinikolaou G. Kaliope, Phd thesis on, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, Elimeia, Eordaia, Orestiada, Lygistida), (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University , 351 pp., 2007. Hoskin Michael (edit), The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Lockyer Norman, On Observations of Stars Made in Some British Stone Circles: Second Note, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 77, No. 519 (May 14, 1906), pp. 465-472. Lockyer Norman and Penrose F. C, An Attempt to Ascertain the Date of the Original Construction of Stonehenge from its Orientation, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 69 (1901 - 1902), pp. 137-147. Malville , J. McKim, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, Boulder CO: Johnson Books, 166 pp., 2008. Mpousboukis Antonios, The Ma Mother in Edessa and wider Macedonian space, pp. 111-123 and Miltiades B Hatzopoulos, The Cult of Goddess Ma in Edessa, pp. 125-132, in G. Kiutuskas (edit.), Municipality of Edessa, Proceedings of the A Pan-Hellenic Scientific Symposium, Edessa and its Region: History and Culture, Edessa: 4, 5 and 6 December 1992), Edessa: Vourgoundis Printing, 1995.

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Word Count: 4149 Rizakis Athanasios and Touratsoglou Ioannis, Cults in Upper Macedonia, Tradition and Innovations, in Ancient Macedonia: Sixth International Symposium, Vol. 2, Thessaloniki: Institute of Balkan Studies, 1999, pp. 949-965 Ruggles Clive, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, New Haven CT: Yale University Press, pp.285, 1999. Ruggles Clive, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, pp.285, 1999). Samsaris K. Dimitios, Individual Allowances in Roman State (cinitas Romana) and their distribution in the Roman prefecture of Macedonia. II: The case of Beroia, seat of the Macedon Common, Macedonia Studies Company. Smith E.Michael, Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 2003), 221-228. Stephani Liana, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion: The example of Leykopetra Himathia, in The Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace 16, 706 pp., Thessaloniki: Adam-Beleni, 2004, pp. 531-542. Stephani Liana, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion: The example of Leykopetra Himathia, in The Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace 16, 706 pp., (Thessaloniki: Adam-Beleni, 2004), pp. 531-542.

Index: Photo 1.

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Photo 11.