Issue 9: Burning History & the Ashing of Science

Issue 9 | Summer 2014 

© 2012-2014 Origins Scientific Research Society 

founded by Melanie E Magdalena 

Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share- 

Alike 4.0 Unported License. Permission of the authors is required for derivative 

works, compilations, and translations. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors 

and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Origins. The publisher, 

editor, contributors, and related parties assume no responsibility for loss, injury 

or inconvenience of any person, organization, or party that uses the information 

or resources provided within this publication, website, or related products. 

Did you know 

Television is one of the primary causes for lower attention 

spans, whereas reading requires and encourages the reader to maintain 

a longer attention span. 

........... ......................................................... 

So turn off all those 

electronic devices, 

except for the one you 

are reading THIS from. and get to reading issue #9 of Origins. 

....................................................................

4 | ORIGINS 

From the editor... 

Once upon a time, in a far away, land literature was appreciated 

by all. Wait, hold on... that sounds like an alternate universe. 

Welcome to our universe, where people on planet Earth 

occassionally read. What is it they are reading? Well, that 

depends on their media provider. History here is told by the 

person of authority, that icon of power, who may (likely) alter 

the story ever so slightly to suit their needs. 

We are all victims of misinformation. In an Internet-era, facts 

are jumbled amongst letters that have been processed through 

so many telephone games, the original message is mostly gone. 

Non-literary sources pick and choose what order a message 

should be given in and decide how to word it in order to 

construct an argument, be it subjective and biased or not. 

From the Old World to the New World, this issue explores the 

Crusades, the effects of the Inquisition on the Maya people 

during the conquest, banned books over the years, and how 

media meddles with our information. Beyond the scope of 

this issue bounded by text, experience religious warfare across 

the globe with our Google Earth open access freebie on the 

Crusades. 

A Quick Note from the Staff: 

We’d like to make some special announcements. First off, thank 

you all 5 million readers from the past two years! Issue 9, on 

the burning of history and ashing of scientific advancement, 

marks the beginning of our third year publishing for you. 

Secondly, congratulations to our Editor-in-Chief, Melanie E. 

Magdalena, and copyeditor Margaret Smith on graduating with 

their B.S. and B.A. in anthropology respectively. And third, 

thank you Amanda Schlindwein for editing this issue with us 

as Margaret is off doing archaeological field work in Colorado. 

And Back to the Editor... 

Alright, go on now. Time to flip the page. It is time to 

rediscover where we came from as history is taught to us 

(as told by the victor). Go forth, learn, think, analyze, and 

synthesize what the correct version of history is. 

Melanie E Magdalena 

Editor-in-Chief, Origins Scientific Research Society 

editor@knowyourorigins.org 

www.knowyourorigins.org 

STAFF 

MELANIE E MAGDALENA 

Editor-in-Chief & 

Creative Designer 

The Founder of Origins 

Scientific Research Society. 

MARGARET SMITH 

Copy Editor 

Anthropologist specialized in 

Japanese archaeology and culture. 

ETHAN KELLOGG 

Graphics 

Great for parties with a wealth 

of useless knowledge. Parental 

discretion advised. 

ALEX VOSBURGH 

Marketing & Public Relations 

Mild mannered man, making the 

most of middle management 

monstrosities, but mainly marveling 

at the magnificence of the many 

majesties of the multiverse. 

FIDEL JUNCO 

Director of Donor Relations 

Specialist in marine animals and 

other exotic reptiles, birds, and 

amphibians. 

CONTRIBUTORS 

MORGAN V COURAGE 

Word architect and 

mathmatician. 

JIM THOMAS 

Avocational archaeologist & 

outdoor explorer of prehistory & 

natural history in northern Arizona. 

SPECIAL THANKS 

AMANDA Schlindwein 

for editing this issue with us!

Burnt Books and 

Preserved Pots 

The Spanish Inquisition in the Americas 

Melanie E Magdalena 

ETHAN KELLOGG | CC BY-SA 4.0

People scrambled about the streets of Maní as a pyre was prepped in the main 

square of the Yucatec town. Codices filled with astronomy, history, math, and religion 

were piled up among the sculptural “works of the devil.” A lucky discovery 

by the Spanish…if they had not found the cave, maybe the books wouldn’t have 

burned. Smoke filled the air on July 12, 1562 as Spanish friar Diego de Landa burned 

the beliefs of the Maya of Maní, thus ending the final kingdom of the Tutul-Xiu. 

Diego de Landa (1524-1579) arrived in Yucatán, 

Mexico in 1549. In Izamal, a previously important 

religious center prior to the Spanish arrival, 

a Catholic church was built on top of the old 

temples to deracinate Maya idolatry. Those who 

refused to renounce their ancient beliefs and 

embrace Catholicism faced Inquisition trials and 

many were killed. The inquisition of Maní lasted 

three months with over 4,000 natives tortured 

during conversion trials. 

INQUISITION: BURNT BOOKS & PRESERVED POTS | 7 

accordion books (or codices). Many pots–including 

plates, bowls, jars, cups, and more ceramics 

of that style–were painted in hieroglyphic texts, 

which archaeologists continue to collect and 

study today. The Maya wrote on everything. Since 

pots were not assumed to be in direct competition 

with the Holy Bible, they managed to avoid destruction 

better than other hieroglyphic artifacts. 

De Landa’s writings have assisted in piecing back 

“Hallámosles gran número de libros de estas sus letras, y 

porque no tenían cosa en que no hubiese superstición y falsedades 

del demonio, se los quemamos todos, lo cual sintieron a 

maravilla y les dio mucha pena.” - Diego de Landa 

eRelación de las Cosas de Yucatán (117-8) 

Diego de Landa’s inflexible and raucous conduct 

earned him a trip back to Spain in 1563 after being 

condemned by the Council of the Indies. By 

1566, he completed his book Relación de las Cosas 

de Yucatán (Relation on the incidents of Yucatan) 

to explain his inquisition actions in trial. 

On pages 117 and 118, Diego de Landa states: 

“We found many books with these letters [hieroglyphs], 

and because they contained nothing 

that was free from superstition and the devil’s 

trickery, we burnt them, which the Indians greatly 

lamented.” In 1573, de Landa returned to Yucatan 

as bishop cleared of all accusations. 

Over 5,000 idols and at least 27 hieroglyphic texts, 

assumed to be full of witchcraft and evil knowledge 

against the Catholic church, ashed away into 

the earth. Luckily, the Spanish destroyed almost 

exclusively statues, figurines, and the bark-paper 

together burnt history, albeit from a biased perspective. 

He wrote of the calendars, economy, 

politics, religion, and social organization. He took 

special interest in the similarity of the cross-shape 

in Christianity and the Maya world tree, as well as 

other similarities between the two religious systems. 

Yuri Knorozov, Russian scholar, deciphered 

the glyphs de Landa had written from the 1600s 

(an attempt to match Spanish sounds with Mayan 

glyphs) in 1952. De Landa had believed each 

glyph was a single letter like the Latin alphabet; 

Knorozov figured out they were syllables. 

Even with advances in hieroglyphic studies from 

architecture, sculptures, and painted pots: to this 

day, the Mayan code remains incomplete with 

undecipherable pieces. The Spanish Inquisition 

of the Americas is an example of the catastrophic 

reality of history told by the victor. u 

Origins Scientific Research Society

GLENN WILLIAMS | PD 

Creature Feature 

Narwhal 

Fidel Junco & Ethan Kellogg 

Mythical unicorn of the sea? 

T o Sta rt Off, 

H o w About Some Fa c t s 

Narwhals are related to the beluga whale, both 

species being from the family Monodontidae. 

The word narwhal comes from Old Norse which 

means “corpse whale,” named after the creature’s 

pale body color. The prominent tusk-like feature 

on their heads influenced the classification of the 

species, Monodon monoceros, meaning “onetooth 

one-horn.” 

Inuit lance made from narwhal tusk with a 

meteorite iron blade. geni | cc by-sa 3.0 

Found in the coastal Arctic waters, the narwhal is 

a medium-sized whale with two vestigial teeth. 

In males, the tusk is actually the canine tooth on 

the left side of the jaw which spirals out in a helix 

shape through the upper lip. The hollow tooth of 

ivory grows throughout the narwhal’s entire life 

reaching anywhere from 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 m) 

in length. In male narwhals, 1 out of 500 grow 

a second tusk with their right side canine protruding 

as well. Some females also have visible 

tusk-teeth but they are much less prominent than 

males’. 


10 | ORIGINS 

Side and bottom view of the “narwhal” or “unicorn whale” 

from An Account of the Arctic Regions with a history and description 

of the Northern Whale-Fishery by W. Scoresby, 1820. 

Narwhals primarily live in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, from central Canadian 

Arctic eastward to Greenland and into the eastern Russian Arctic (though rarely 

sighted here). They tend to spend two months of summer in ice-free shallow bays 

and migrate to deep, offshore, ice-covered regions by the continental slope. Narwhals 

annually migrate between the two seasonal areas over two month movement 

periods. Sometimes narwhals die from drowning when the strong Arctic winds 

freeze the surface of the water, blocking narwhals from surfacing to breathe. Being 

mammals, they still need to breathe air, and when they can’t crack the ice, it becomes 

a fatal event for the creature. 

www.knowyourorigins.org

CREATURE FEATURE | 11 

Due to many factors, including man-made climate 

change, little-to-no hunting regulations, and 

ocean pollution, narwhals are considered Near 

Threatened by the International Union for Conservation 

of Nature. Data from 2011 states narwhal 

population is over 80,000. To help protect the status 

of these creatures, the Canadian government 

instituted Narwhal Protection Regulations under 

the Fisheries Act in 1971. This made hunting 

narwhals illegal for anyone other than the Inuits. 

There is a catch limit of 5 narwhals a year per subsistence 

hunter and hunters are required to utilize 

every part of the narwhal. 

N a r w h a l s In Fiction 

The following is an artistic retelling of an Inuit legend 

of how the narwhal got its tusk. 

There once was a little Inuit boy. His mother was 

wicked and had stolen his eyesight. She took the 

boy’s eyes and threw them into the frigid water 

when he was born. From then on, the boy couldn’t 

see anything, but a friendly loon had taught him 

to use his sense of smell to get around. 

One day, the boy smelled the scent of a polar bear 

approaching his home. Using his nose, the boy 

was able to sneak up on the polar bear and kill it 

before it was able to attack his family. However, 

instead of being happy for the boy’s success, the 

mother simply took the meat and blubber for herself. 

She cooked the meat in front of the boy, but 

wouldn’t let him eat any of it. 

She took the blubber and put it into her hair, forming 

a twisted, braided knot that came out the top 

of her head. The mother was very proud of her 

new hair style, showing it off to the people around 

the village whenever she could. The boy never got 

praised, and were it not for the friendly loon that 

would occasionally come and drop food for the 

boy, he might have starved to death. 

One day the friendly loon came to visit the boy, 

but it didn’t bring any food. Instead it picked up 

the boy and flew off to its nest, where the boy and 

loon laughed and played all day. When they were 

finished, the loon picked up the boy again to take 

him home. However, the boy slipped from the 

loon’s grasp and fell into the frigid water below. 

The water was cold and the boy couldn’t breathe 

to smell which way was up from down. He struggled 

for a while, but couldn’t swim the right direction. 

He slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep. 

When he awoke later, he was back in the loon’s 

nest. The friendly loon had dived into water after 

the boy and retrieved him. The boy opened his 

eyes and was shocked to be able to see the loon 

in front of him. The water had turned into ice inside 

his eyes, restoring his vision. Better yet, his vision 

was vastly superior, allowing him to see great 

distances, spotting his home all the way from the 

loon’s nest. When he returned home to tell his 

mother about his vision, she was only happy that 

the boy could now hunt for narwhal in the water 

for her. 

On their first outing to go narwhal hunting, the 

boy was tasked with harpooning small narwhals 

so that she could use the blubber for her hair. 

The harpoon was tied to a rope which was tied 

to his mother’s waist, so she could pull them in. 

The boy spotted his first narwhal, but thought that 

it was too big for the mother to pull. The mother 

chastised the boy and told him to throw the 

harpoon. The harpoon struck deep, but the narwhal 

wouldn’t let the mother reel it in. It pulled 

and struggled so much that the mother fell into 

the water. Before the boy could do anything, the 

mother was dragged deep below, never to be seen 

again. Her long, twisted, braided knot was the last 

thing to go under the water. Narwhals back then 

didn’t have horns, but ever since that day people 

have seen narwhals with twisted spiraled horns 

coming out the top of their heads. u 

NARWHALS IN 

POP CULTURE 

Now that you know the facts and the legendary 

fiction, if you dare, check out this video 

for a glimpse of narwhals in pop culture. 


A 

Sols

Discovering 

Prehistoric 

tice Marker 

This is an interpretive series of notes and captions taken from my 

personal journal. For over 35 years I have hiked, explored, and photographed 

the limestone and basalt canyons of northern Arizona. As a result I have 

recorded several scientific “firsts” in archaeology regarding the activities of the 

ancient people we now call Sinagua, Cohonino, and Anasazi. I also have 

acquired some basic knowledge of local geology, the native plants, and the 

wildlife. It is a pleasure to present some of these observations in this format. 

Sincerely, Jim Thomas 

Jim Thomas is an 

avocational archaeologist 

and outdoor explorer 

of prehistory and natural 

history in northern Arizona. 

http://slatewalker.blogspot.com/

14 | ORIGINS 

As a result of many, many hikes around the Flagstaff area, I’ve come across this wonderful stone alcove 

with rock art. Throughout the year, in all kinds of weather, I find that this is the perfect place to rest, have 

lunch, and contemplate my discoveries. The real value of this place wasn’t obvious at first, however. It 

just served as a nice place to visit in the midst of all of these ancient treasures. One day it all changed. 

If you look at the basalt alcove you’ll notice that the large center stone panel is covered with some very 

old petroglyphs (archaeological artifacts). An interview with the chief archaeologist at Coconino National 

Forest provided me with an interpretation: these figures are probably from the Cohonino culture which 

is much older than the predominately Sinagua place. 

Basalt Alcove

DISCOVERING A PREHISTORIC SOLSTICE MARKER | 15 

Petrogylphs on basalt 

All images in 

this article are 

© Jim Thomas 

and used with 

his persmission.

On the stone surfaces above these glyphs are three polished depressions (see above), used hundreds 

or thousands of years ago by the people who lived here as grinding slicks, for tool making, etc. They’re 

all part of this “place.” There is also an oversized petroglyph appearing to be a footprint of a large bird. 

Since I’ve sat here eating lunch on so may occasions, I’ve become familiar with the details of this enclosed 

environment. I began to notice vertical alignments (see right) and details between the glyph 

panel and the natural rock formations above. They were created when the basalt was hot lava filled with 

gas bubbles, causing it to cool with these interesting tube-like voids. The Sinagua must have found 

them very interesting and meaningful, particularly since they are near this large vertical crack in the 

rocks. Deep openings like this were often revered as sacred openings or connections with the spirit 

world within the earth, I’m told. This could explain the presence of pecked images. 

Then, one day in January, I 

observed this! 

The shadow of the noon sun 

was crossing directly over the 

center of the double concentric 

circle petroglyph. Was this 

a coincidence? What does it 

do on the summer solstice and 

on the shortest day in December? 

Was this really a seasonal 

solar marker? It would take a 

whole year of observation to 

know. The challenge was ON!

Sure enough, on June 21st, at 

11:45 exactly (middle of the day 

to the Sinagua), the shadow of 

the sun created this vertical shadow 

across the circle glyph. That it 

was vertical instead of horizontal 

was the first surprise. This glyph 

had been so cleverly positioned 

that it used the horizontal edge of 

the stone overhang in winter and 

the vertical edge in summer. With 

photographic evidence in hand, 

I reported all of this to the local 

professional archaeologists.

DISCOVERING A PREHISTORIC SOLSTICE MARKER | 19 

At the same moment the summer solstice occurs, the shadow (see above) also forms an interesting 

“ground line” just beneath several of the little figures carved on the major panel. It also cuts through 

the heart of the anthropomorphic figure. 

I waited patiently for December to witness my expectation on December 21st, the winter solstice. I arrived 

early at this place and watched the remarkably different shadow pattern approach. I could taste 

the suspense. 

Taken about five minutes before mid-day (see below), the botches of shadow in the scene are the result 

of a presently growing young ponderosa pine, NOW in the path of the noon sunlight. It lessens the 

effect but not the accuracy. Notice, in contrast to the summer pattern, the triangle shadow shape that 

is approaching the concentric circle petroglyph. This is a completely different experience. 


20 | ORIGINS 

THEN, the greatest surprise 

of all! 

Inital curve of shadow on the winter solstice. 

A heretofore unobserved 

indentation in the overhanging 

escarpment formed 

an arc in the line of the 

shadow. This occurred at 

the last minute and, to 

my amazement, it actually 

matched the curve of the 

outer glyph circle. It fit. I 

had goosebumps the first 

time I saw this. Now, the 

size and placement of the 

glyph was justified. None 

of this is coincidence! 

It could be construed that 

the author of the glyph 

based the size of the outer 

circle on this nest, a “perfect 

fit.” It must be the result 

of thoughtful observation. 

Curiously, in the next two 

minutes this shadow arc 

then “hugs” the inner circle. 

It is about two minutes 

from “mid-day.” 

THEN... it forms the completed 

image. This moment 

is at 11:20 AM our time. I 

acknowledge that this is a 

Inner shadow hug two minutes prior to solstice time. 

few minutes before twelve 

noon, our time. The winter 

event is also a few minutes before our twelve noon exactly. For a people with no concept of minutes, 

the middle of the day is good enough for me. 

I submit this as visual evidence of a true and very unique seasonal marker that faces the winter sunrise 

and overlooks what once was happening on the forest slope we now call east Flagstaff. This archaeological 

site has been observed and recorded several times by professionals, including Harold Colton, 

the founder of Northern Arizona Museum. But none of them spent enough time here, apparently, to 

observe this event, as no reference to it being a solstice indicator exists in their notes. 

I apparently discovered an ancient solar marker indicating the longest and the shortest day of the year, 

in a uniquely horizontal and vertical way. This has all been documented now and reported to Coconino 

National Forest’s archaeological office. u 


Winter Solstice Marker near Flagstaff, Arizona completed at 11:20 AM

PAGE 22 OF 48 

To write history is to attempt 

to record important events, 

lifestyles, and situations. 

But it is said that history is 

written by the victors. How does a 

historian decide what is objectively 

relevant and worth recording? 

This has always been an issue for 

historians of the past, but in many 

ways, people who report news today 

are still faced with this dilemma. 

The communication of noteworthy 

information concerning 

recent and important 

events is reported to be the core 

concept of news. It’s what drives 

the entire industry. Many people 

have made careers by discovering 

and discerning what exactly counts 

as news. However, the industry is 

not without its hiccups. What happens 

when some of those choices 

are made poorly? What happens when 

personal gain starts to overcome 

journalistic integrity? The harm 

that could possibly come from not 

publishing a particular story, or 

giving coverage to one story over 

another, is not often considered. 

But the fallout may be more severe 

than one would first realize. 

By Alex 

Vosburgh 

In 2011, seven different 

surveys were published regarding 

the social awareness 

of citizens who watched 

certain popular cable news 

outlets. The results were consistent: 

on average, Fox News 

viewers were misinformed more 

often than those who watched 

other popular news outlets, 

and scored worse on knowledge 

of select topics than people who 

didn’t watch any major news outlets 

at all. The topics included in 

these studies ranged from knowledge 

about the political landscapes 

of Egypt and Syria, healthcare 

reform, election candidates, 

and man-made climate change. 

The eye-opening surveys became 

popular enough that almost every 

outlet that dabbles in news 

seemed to publish articles about 

the ordeal–from reputable sources 

like Forbes and Huffington 

Post to the popular 

parody news show The 

Daily Show with John Stewart. 

The issue sparked many debates, 

both into the misinformation 

perported by Fox News and 

other journalistic outlets, and 

into the nature of news itself. 

Though a story like this may be fun 

to joke about for those who don’t 

support Fox News or other mainstream 

media, the reality is that 

incidents like this aren’t isolated, 

nor is it the only questionable 

practice going on in news outlets. 

If you paid any sort of attention 

to the media about a year 

ago in 2013, you’ve most certain- 

KEEP YOUR BRAIN FULL OF SCIENCE AT WWW.KNOWYOURORIGINS.ORG 

O

ISSUE 9 OF ORIGINS, AN INDEPENDENT MEDIA PUBLICATION 

ETHAN’S USELESS 

KNOWLEDGE (THAT 

WILL HELP YOU IN 

YOUR LIFE IN NO 

WAY WHATSOEVER) 

ly heard about Miley 

Cyrus and her performance 

at the MTV Video 

Music Awards. Even 

if you didn’t, chances 

are you still know 

about it. For weeks, 

it seemed like that 

was the most popular 

topic most news outlets 

wanted to discuss, 

and even now she 

is the butt of many 

a joke, all thanks to 

one performance. At 

the same time, however, 

reports confirmed 

that the Syrian government 

had been using 

chemical weapons 

in its civil war 

against Syrian rebels. 

pop star than it is 

to pay attention to 

violence and political 

debates, but is 

it truly the aim of 

major news outlets to 

be fun? If actions 

dictate intention, 

many outlets seem to 

think so. It feels as 

if many news sources 

are paying more attention 

to providing 

entertainment rather 

than providing 

the public service of 

well-informed news. 

The implications of 

such phenomenon coming 

to light are grim. 

Have you ever 

seen this 

symbol before? 

It’s called an ampersand 

and it’s kind of 

silly looking. You’ve 

probably seen this 

used in fancy titles 

at the movies, 

or on handmade signs 

to save space. Most 

people know it means 

“and,” although it’s 

actually a ligature 

of the word et, which 

is Latin for “and.” A 

Despite this shocking 

piece of news that many 

proclaimed may lead 

to a new World War, 

in the United States, 

more consistent coverage 

was still given 

to the young singer. 

Now sure, it is a lot 

more fun to pay attention 

to a sexy young 

RIGINS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SOCIETY, PUBLISHING SINCE MAY 2012

The evidence suggests 

that people tuning 

into specific sources 

for news may not be 

getting an unbiased, 

or even wholly truthful, 

story. How could 

something like this 

happen? The only reasonable 

explanations 

would be that either 

the reporters are 

consistently wrong, 

which would certainly 

mean sweeping staff 

changes and policy 

revisions, or that 

the stories in question 

were broadcast as 

they were on purpose. 

Perhaps these practices 

are so broad 

because around 90% of 

all American media is 

directly or indirectly 

owned by one of 6 

companies: Comcast, 

NewsCorp, Disney, Viacom, 

Time Warner and 

CBS. This is in stark 

contrast to just 30 

years ago when more 

than 50 different 

corporations had a 

share in mainstream 

media. The landscape 

is apparently very 

different now, and 

it allows for vastly 

different methods 

of news broadcasting. 

It translates 

into a shockingly 

small amount of people 

who dictate what 

MORE OF ETHAN’S USELESS KNOWLEDGE 

ligature is a symbol 

that combines two or 

more symbols together 

to form one idea. If 

you look closely, you 

can see the e and the 

t represented within 

the symbol. 

Basically, fancy people 

“back then” were 

really lazy and didn’t 

want to write the word 

“and” every single 

time. Instead, they 

borrowed the Latin 

symbol and just pronounced 

it and (presumably 

so when they 

wrote their run-on 

sentences it didn’t 

hurt their wrists so 

much with all that 

swishy feathered 

quill writing everyone 

did back then). 

‘Twas Wednesday & 

ye sky was blue & my 

cat hadst thrown up 

on ye carpet & ‘twas 

most gross. 

People would use the 

ampersand to shorten 

words already shortened, 

further solidifying 

the laziness 

of humanity. The Latin 

phrase et cetera 

(which means “and so 

forth”) is commonly 

abbreviated etc. How- 

ever, you can abbreviate 

it further by 

shortening it to &c. 

People liked using 

the ampersand so 

much, it was basically 

the unofficial 27 th 

letter and was taught 

as such in schools. 

Back then, when the 

teacher would make 

you recite the alphabet, 

whenever you 

came to a letter that 

was also a word by itself 

(the letters A, 

I, &, and originally 

O) you would say “per 

se” (Latin for “by 

itself”) before the 

letter. Near the end 

of the alphabet, you 

would say, “X, Y, Z, 

and per se & (and).” 

Years of bored children 

hastily trying 

to get through their 

alphabet would slur 

the words “and per se 

and” together until 

we get ampersand. 

This odd-looking glyph 

was stolen from a 

dead language because 

we were too lazy to 

write three characters, 

and was named 

after people hastily 

reciting it in grade 

school. Go forth and 

share all of this 

useless knowledge 

with the world.■ 

WWW.KNOWYOURORIGINS.ORG THE REALIST NEWS SINCE NEWS WAS NEWS

Guilty 

You probably are & need to learn why, so watch this great 

music video of "Word Crimes" by "Wierd Al" Yankovic. 

of 

Word 

Crimes? 

a large majority of 

the population see. 

Now, obviously, I’m 

not privy to the 

intentions or desired 

outcomes of 

any of these companies 

or their practices, 

so I can only 

inform you readers 

based on the information 

available to me. 

The news is easily the 

best way to be able 

to gather information 

about the world around 

us, but one should always 

be careful with 

any information that 

comes his or her way. 

You can’t believe everything 

you hear, 

because you never 

know who is trying 

to profit off of you. 

Which begs a question 

about journalistic 

integrity: 

Is it an urban 

legend? An oxymoron? 

A myth? The world may 

never know. Or at the 

very least, you apparently 

won’t see the 

answer on the news. ■ 

OSRS: STATING THE FACTS SINCE 2012

26 | ORIGINS 

Banned 

Books 

Karen Meza Cherit 

Alice’s Adventures 

in Wonderland 

by Lewis Carroll 

When: 1931 

Where: China 

Why: Contradicted 

natural laws and 

children could 

regard humans 

and animals on 

the same level. 

World events shape the future of individuals and 

nations, but known events become written history 

(taught to developing minds). One event in particular 

marked the future of literature and thus changed 

history: the Holy Inquisition. 

Before the secularisation of nations, people lived 

under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, 

which decided what the world could and could not 

know. In Spain, heracy had zero tolerance. Around 

the fifteenth century, the Holy Inquisition banned 

all books that were believed to go against religion 

or may have encouraged society to practice witchcraft. 

Though centuries have passed, the idea of banning 

books continues. If a book’s content is seen as detrimental 

to the regime in power, it is banned. If a 

book expresses a socially or culturally unaccepted 

thought, it is banned. Different ideologies, political 

views, and religious beliefs continue to remove 

books from the eager eyes of the learned and ignorant 

alike. 

Many of the books listed here were published at a 

point in time when, or in a place where they were 

not appreciated or understood for their social and 

cultural significance. But the banning of literature, 

through history, both past and present, has had 

unexpected effects: the wetting of the intellectual 

appetite. Each year, more people take interest in 

those books that are kept from them, to learn, and 

to access their forbidden secrets. u 

Lolita 

by Vladimir Nabokov 

When: 1950s - 1960s 

Where: Argentina, 

Canada, France, 

New Zealand, South 

Africa, United 

Kingdom 

Why: Corruption of 

minors with erotic 

content. 

Brave New World 

by Aldous Huxley 

When: 1932; 1967 

Where: Ireland; India 

Why: First in Ireland 

followed by India 

for taboo subjects 

including contraception, 

drugs, pornography, 

sexuality, 

and suicide. 


OBJECT OF INTEREST | 27 

Mein Kampf 

by Adolf Hitler 

When: 1947 to 

present 

Where: Austria 

Why: Extremist 

glorification and 

advertising of the 

Nazi Party punishable 

by imprisonment. 

De Rerun Natura 

by Lucretius 

When: First century 

Where: Europe 

Why: A scientific 

vision describing 

atoms, celestial and 

terrestrial phenomena, 

and an infinite 

universe. Denied the 

powers of Roman 

deities. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four 

by George Orwell 

When: 1950 to 1990 

Where: USSR/Russia 

Why: Understood as 

a satire of Stalin’s 

political leadership. 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin 

by Harriet Beecher 

Stowe 

When: Civil War; 1982 

Where: USA; Russia 

Why: In the USA for 

anti-slavery content; 

in Russia for presenting 

equality 

and undermined 

religious ideals. 

Adventures of 

Huckelberry Finn 

by Mark Twain 

When: 1982; 2009 

Where: Virginia, USA; 

Washington, USA 

Why: Offensive 

language by using 

the word “nigger” 

abundantly. 

In The First Circle 

by Aleksander 

Solzhenitsyn 

When: 1968 to 1978 

Where: Russia 

Why: Detailed the 

lives of scientists 

forced to work in 

a Stalinist research 

center; presented 

reactionary 

nationalism. 


By the Blood of the 

Sword and the Moon 

Religious Conquest of the Old World 

Morgan V Courage

2010 winter solstice blood moon | nikkorz | cc by 2.0

30 | ORIGINS 

The Early Years 

Christianity vs Islam 

Orthodox Christianity, under the Roman Empire, 

existed in Asia Minor, Egypt, France, Italy, North 

Africa, Palestine, Spain, Syria, and the islands of 

Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily by 632 CE. Christian 

communities outside of the empire in Arabia and 

Persia were destroyed, resulting in the expulsion 

of Christians and Jews. Within a hundred years, 

Muslims ruled Asia Minor, Egypt, southern France, 

Palestine, and Syria. Italy and its associated islands 

also fell under Muslim rule a century later. 

By the late 800s, Muslims ruled two-thirds of the 

Roman Christian world by bloodshed and force. 

In 1095, Byzantine Emperor Alexis I Komnenos 

requested Western aide to prevent the Turkish 

invasion of Anatolia. Byzantium considered Constantinople 

the second Jerusalem and the centre 

of Christianity. However, Pope Urban’s speech in 

1095 at the Council of Clermont fueled the First 

Crusade. Hundreds of crusades on various levels 

of scale plagued the world for 200 years since. 

The largest wars, Crusades I to VIII, were centered 

on taking Jerusalem and preserving Christianity 

from the Muslim dominance. Other smaller European 

battles were fought against pagans and 

heretics. 

Far from being unprovoked, the crusades represent 

a Christian counterattack against Muslim 

aggressive attacks since the beginning of Islam. 

According to documented history, the main focus 

appears to be Jerusalem. 

1738 BC 

Abraham 

receives a 

blessing 

from King 

Melchizedek 

of Salem. 

Pictured here: 

Abraham and 

Melchisedek 

[Dieric Bouts 

ca. 1465] 

Jerusalem 

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities on Earth, first 

built around 4000 BCE. The name comes from 

yeru, meaning “foundation,” and shalem (shalom 

in Hebrew) meaning “peace”: foundation of 

peace. 

Jerusalem fell under Babylonian, Macedonian, 

Roman, Byzantine, and Sassanid Imperial control 

up until 638 CE when the Islamic Caliphate extended 

dominion into Jerusalem, naming it the 

third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. Until 

the Crusades, the Jews were under Arab control. 


THE CRUSADES | 31 

People In History 

- Abraham - 

First Jew and founder of 

Judaism, the physical and 

spiritual ancestor of the 

Jewish people and one of the 

three patriarchs of Judaism. 

Pictured here: 

Abraham and the Angels 

[Aert de Gelder ca. 1680] 

currently at Museum Boijmans 

Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 

Netherlands. 

By the end of the 11th century, chants of “Deus le 

volt” (God wills it), announced the first Crusade 

under way to fight Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria. 

The First Crusade 

1095 to 1099 

At the Clermont Council, Pope Urban II began the 

Cluniac Reform movement and excommunicated 

King Phillip of France for adultery. On November 

27, 1095, Pope Urban II’s local speech drew such 

a large crowd of commoners and local nobility 

that the papal throne was moved from the cathedral 

to a field outside of town. At this gathering, 

the Pope asked all to gather arms and take the 

Holy Land out of Muslim control, a request initially 

made by Alexius I. 

Receiving tremendous response from the military, 

lords, and ordinary citizens, an armed pilgrimage 

began wearing a cross to symbolize the 

Church. Peter the Hermit led a band of knights 

and commoners before the four armies and destroyed 

everything in their path fighting through 

the Byzantine empire before the Turks at Cibotus 

crushed them. Count Emicho led a group of crusaders 

that murdered Jews in many towns of 

Rhineland. The four main armies arrived in Constantinople, 

swore allegiance to Alexius I and 

conquered Anatolia, followed by Antioch. 

130 AD Rome has conquered Jerusalem and 

Hadrian renames the city Aelia Capitolina, 

establishing it as a Roman Colony completed 

with a temple to the deity Jupiter, as pictured 

here by a scale model. [hiro-o | cc by-sa 3.0] 

866 BC King David of Israel establishes 

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Later it serves as 

the capital of the Kigdom of Judea. 

423 BC King Nebuchadnezar II destroyed 

Solomon’s Temple and enslaved many Jews. Later 

to be rebuilt under King Cyrus the Great of Persia. 

Pictured here: model of the second temple of 

Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. [Ariely | CC BY 3..0] 

In 1099, the armies reached Jerusalem and 

camped outside the city, forcing the governor 

to surrender. Hundreds of men, women and children 

were slaughtered as they made the victory 

march into the city. Both Muslims and Jews were 

banished from Jerusalem. The war was short 

and many Crusaders returned home. Four large 

western settlements were established: Jerusalem, 

Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli. 

The Second Crusade 

1144 to 1155 

Around 1130, the Muslims began a jihad against 

the Christians. Edessa was captured in 1144 by 

General Zangi leading to the Second Crusade. 

King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of 

Germany assembled an army of 50,000 in Jerusalem 

to take the Syrian stronghold Damascus. Nur 


32 | ORIGINS 

al-Din, the successor to Zangi, sent aid and the 

combined Muslim force defeated the Crusaders, 

adding Damascus to his empire. 

The Crusaders of Jerusalem started fighting for 

Cairo. Nur al-Din sent an army led by general 

Shirkuh to take Cairo. After Cairo fell to the Muslims, 

Saladin, the nephew of general Shirkuh, 

campaigned against the Christians. After Nur al- 

Din’s death, Saladin led a major campaign against 

the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders fell at 

the battle of Hattin and lost Jerusalem. 

The Third Crusade 

1187 to 1192 

The Third Crusade was born in response to the 

battle of Hattin with forces led by Emperor Frederick 

Barbarossa, King Philip II of Spain, and King 

Richard I of England. Richard I, known as Richard 

the Lionheart, seized Jaffa and won the battle of 

Arsuf. Richard I and Saladin signed a peace treaty 

that re-established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 

but not the city. 

The Fourth Crusade 

1202 to 1204 

Pope Innocent III called the Fourth Crusade 

against the Byzantine emperor, Alexius III. Alexius 

IV’s attempt to bring the Byzantine church under 

Rome failed and ended in his death by strangulation 

during a palace coup. The Crusaders declared 

war on Constantinople after Alexius IV’s 

death. 

The city, with a thousand years of collected 

wealth, was ransacked and conquered. Considered 

a great victory, many returned home to Europe 

with their plunder. 

The Fifth Crusade 

1217 to 1221 

Pope Honorius III shared the same Crusade passion 

as his predecessor Pope Innocent III. He sent 

letters calling for armies throughout Europe for 

the Fifth Crusade. Few responded, but a small 

army gathered and made a way to Acre. King 

John of Jerusalem knew that attacking the city 

of Jerusalem would be pointless with Egypt controlled 

by Muslims. 

The Crusaders left for Cairo prioritizing the capture 

of Damietta, a town near the Nile that guarded 

the main water route to Cairo with a small 

tower controlling the Nile channel. They succeeded 

capturing Damietta and the tower. They 

waited for more reinforcements before moving 

into Cairo. 

Cardinal Pelagius came with troops and became 

the leader of this Crusade. After skirmishes and 

cutting the food supply off from Damietta for 

several months, they succeeded in its capture 

through an abandoned tower. 

When the city fell, 80,000 were already dead. 

Only 3,000 inhabitants were alive when the Crusaders 

entered the city. After the victory, squabbles 

among the troops ensued. Much of Egypt 

was starving while the Sultan awaited the Crusaders’ 

advance. 

It came in July with a march of 40,000 soldiers 

and 5,000 knights into Sharimshah. The army was 

trapped by the weather and terrain, left with only 

the option of forced retreat. The knights set fire 

to the supplies and the soldiers drank all the wine 

rather than leaving it behind. Al-Kamil ordered 

the canals to flood the area occupied by the Crusaders. 

Many perished, unable to fight in a drunken 

stupor in the mud under a night sky. A truce 

was made between King John and the Sultan. 

Damietta was returned to Egypt, prisoners were 

exchanged, a feast was held, and the Crusaders 

boarded a ship back to Europe. 

The True Cross was part of the truce; however, in 

the fourth year after the fall of Jerusalem, it was 

unable to be recovered and returned. Back in Europe, 

fingers of blame pointed everywhere making 

this the last general European crusade. 

The Sixth Crusade 

1228 to 1229 

The Sixth Crusade centered around Frederick II. 

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was without a King, 

the reagents 14-year-old daughter Yolanda was 



The True Cross 

“True Cross” is the name given to 

the physical remains of the cross 

on which Jesus was crucified. This is 

accepted as a true artifact by Catholic 

and Orthodox churches. 

There are four legends about the 

finding of the true cross. 

In Life of Constantine, Eusebius of 

Caesarea describing the cross as 

buried beneath the Temple of Venus 

during Hadrian’s reconstruction of 

Jerusalem. 

According to Socrates Scholasticus 

in his Ecclesiastical History, when the 

temple was destroyed the cross was 

discovered. Sozomen, in his book 

titled the same, claims the same story 

as true with mention of an 

eastern-dwelling Hebrew who knew 

which cross belonged to Jesus from a 

series of documents in his possesion. 

Theodoret recounts the same classical 

version of the story with an 

addition: president Macarius of the 

city touched each of the crosses until 

the one of Jesus healed him from his 

long suffered disease. The Holy Nails 

in turn were taken by Helena to 

Constantinople. 

Pictured here: Detail of The Finding of the True Cross by Agnolo 

Gaddi of Florence ca. 1380, currently in Santa Croce, Florence. 

made Queen. Frederick II married her, seduced 

her cousin, and was excommunicated by Pope 

Gregory when he fell from favor after a couple 

of delayed departures to the Holy Land. Yolanda 

gave him an heir, Conrad, but his son died shortly 

thereafter. 

When Frederick II arrived in Acre, he was excommunicated 

a second time by the Pope for leaving 

without clearing his first excommunication. Many 

of his followers left him, the Templars and Hospitallers 

refused him, the Military Orders were 

uncooperative, and the barons feared him. Frederick 

II was in the Holy Land with no power or 

support, but he managed a treaty with Al-Kamil 

for the return of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, 

the castle Montfort, the castle Toron, and a corridor 

from Jerusalem to Jaffa. The Muslims kept 

the mosque al-Aqsa, the Dome of the Rock and 

access to the city. 

Frederick was blamed for losing the Fifth Crusade, 

held accountable for breaking his word and vows, 

defying the Pope and wasting an army; but he 


Søren Niedziella & Mate Marschalko | CC BY 2.0 

The weapon of choice 

during the Crusades was 

the sword, an item 

capable of slashing, 

cutting, and piercing 

through armor. 

Crusaders also had 

a dagger as a backup 

in case the 

sword was lost 

or broken in 

battle. 

crowned himself King of Jerusalem anyway. His 

self-coronation was not recognized and he returned 

home, leaving Jerusalem with no defense. 

After the end of the peace treaty, Jerusalem again 

fell under the control of the Muslims. 

The Seventh Crusade 

1248 to 1254 

The Seventh Crusade, the last major crusade, was 

spurred by the Sultan of Egypt seizing Damascus 

and the loss of Christian control over Jerusalem. 

Louis IX of France, victorious over the 

English, decided to lead another crusade to the 

Holy Land. He entrusted the regency with his 

mother, but took his wife and children with him 

on his journey. 

With 40,000 men, he landed and seized in Damietta. 

The dying Sultan once again offered Jerusalem 

for Damietta. Louis IX refused and set on a 

route towards Cairo. At Mansourah, the Crusaders 

faced disaster and were captured, including 

the king. Unable to manage the large captured 

army, the Egyptians decapitated 2,100 of the 

weakest soldiers. Queen Margaret gave birth to 

a son, Jean Tristan, in Damietta before fleeing to 

Acre. 

King Louis IX was released after paying a ransom 

of 400,000 pounds. He set sail for Acre leaving 

wounded soldiers behind (who eventually were 

slaughtered). He negotiated the return of about 

3,000 Christian prisoners and finally returned 

home to France with universal respect as a brave 

and fair king. Towards the end of his life, he raised 

another army and headed East. He died of fever 

just after a victory at Tunis. 

The Eighth and Ninth Crusades 

1270 to 1272 

Subsequent smaller crusades, which were not 

backed by Kings or countries, followed. The Crusader 

rule in Jerusalem only lasted 90 years and 

left little mark in the city. They built a temple on 

Temple Mount, as well as a covered market, a 

hospital, and many churches. 

The last European presence in Palestine ended in

1291 when Acre fell to the Egyptian force, Mamluks, 

who campaigned up the Levantine coast 

until all Crusader possessions were captured. The 

Crusades were enormously expensive and 

failed to keep Jerusalem, both city and 

kingdom, under Christian control. The 

sword for Jerusalem did not end 

with the last Crusade. 

Jerusalem stayed under Egyptian 

rule until the Ottoman Empire took 

the city in 1516, holding it until 1917. 

The British occupied the city during 

World War I until 1923 when it became 

the capital of Palestine. In 1948, 

the United Nations called for the internationalization 

of the city. Refused by 

the Arabs, the city was divided into an 

Israeli sector and Jordanian sector. 

In 1967, after the six day war, the city of 

Jerusalem was united and remains so today. 

On whose land does Jerusalem sit? Has the final 

sword determined peace and ownership? 

Benjamin Netanyahu says it is Israeli land, due to 

the continuous Jewsish presence for 3,300 years. 

In 1312 BCE, Israel became a nation 2,000 years 

before the rise of Islam, and had dominion over 

the land for 1,000 years. Jerusalem has always 

been the capital for the Jews and never for the 

Arab nations. Mohammed never came to the city 

and it is not mentioned in the Koran. The Tenuch 

refers to Jerusalem 700 times. 

When Jordan ruled, Jewish holy sites were desecrated 

and the Jews were denied access to places 

of worship. However, when Israeli rules, all Muslim 

and Christian sites are preserved and accessible 

to all. The Israeli government guarantees 

religious freedom and protection of all holy places. 

The Palestine Liberation Organization Charter 

calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, 

yet Israel gave the Palestinians most of the West 

Bank and autonomy under Palestinian Authority 

of Jordan. 

Sadly, the United Nations (UN) sat silent while 

58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed; the 

ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives 

Between one and 

three million people 

are estimated to 

have died during the 

Crusades, making the 

religious conquest the 

25th most deadliest war 

of all time during the 

11th and 13th centuries.

38 | ORIGINS 

was systematically desecrated when tombstones 

were used to build the walls of public latrines; 

the Jordanians enforced a policy preventing Jews 

from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western 

Wall; and the Palestinian Authority or Jordan is 

not condemned for executing any Arab that sells 

property to a Jew. 

Jerusalem Today 

Jerusalem is the holiest city on Earth, sacred to 

15 million Jews, 2.1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion 

Muslims-nearly half the world’s population. 

After 118 conflicts, 44 conquers, 23 besieges and 

11 religious transfers, it has only changed hands 

peacefully twice in 4000 years (equal to the 

amount of times it was destroyed). 

What is the future? The Holy Bible, referred to 

by believers as love letters from God to His children 

on Earth, speak of signs and wonders. Usually 

manifestations of signs and wonders are on 

Earth, but some signs light up the heavens with 

messages. In the Old Testament, Joel 2:30-31 says: 

“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the 

earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The 

sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to 

blood before the coming of the great and dreadful 

day of the Lord.” Acts 2:19-20, in the New 

Testament, says: “And I will show wonders in 

heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; 

blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun 

shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 

blood, before the great and notable day of the 

Lord come.” 

First Blood Moon of the year during the total lunar eclipse, 15-16 April 2014. 

Photo by Linda Tanner | CC BY 2.0 



Significant signs in relation to Jewish holidays 

have occurred with pronounced historical events. 

A pattern of four blood moons over Jewish holidays 

passed with life changing events in history. 

A blood moon is created by a partial lunar eclipse. 

When the Earth’s shadow covers the moon partially, 

the earth’s atmosphere bends light around 

its edge scattering out shorter-wavelength light 

(green through violet), leaving longer-wavelength 

light (red, orange, and yellow) in the 

Earth’s shadow. The colour is a shade of red giving 

the term blood moon. 

Comparing NASA data with blood moons on 

Jewish holidays, a tetrad (four) of blood moons 

have occurred seven times since 1 CE. Four occurrences 

are connected with significant days in 

Jewish history. They are: 1492, 1948, 1967 and 

2014. 

In 1492, Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s 

Edict of Expulsion gave the Jews 14 days to 

convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. Those that 

did not leave or convert were killed and all their 

property was seized by the church. Those that 

did flee gave Christopher Columbus, an Italian 

Jew, money to find them a new home: America. 

1st Blood Moon: Passover Apr. 2, 1493 

2nd Blood Moon: Sukkoth, Sep. 25, 1493 

3rd Blood Mood: Passover Mar. 22, 1494 

4th Blood Moon: Sukkoth Sep. 15, 1494 

After the horror of Germany’s holocaust in 1948, 

the War of Independence established the State 

of Israel as declared by David Ben-Gurion. Eleven 

minutes later, it was recognized by US President 

Harry S. Truman. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, 

and Iraq invaded shortly after, claiming over 

6,000 Israeli lives. On May, 11, 1949, Israel took its 

seat as the 59th member of the United Nations. 


2nd Blood Moon: Sukkoth Oct. 7, 1949 

3rd Blood Mood: Passover Apr. 2, 1950 

4th Blood Moon: Sukkoth Sep. 26, 1950 

In 1967, The Six Day War started when six Arab 

armies attacked Israel on Yom Kappur. Israel had 

miracle victory after victory, ultimately bringing 

the unification of Jerusalem and uniting with Israel. 


2nd Blood Moon: Sukkoth Oct. 18, 1967 


4th Blood Moon: Sukkoth Oct. 6, 1968 

According to the Jews, an eclipse of the moon 

is a bad omen for the Jewish people, but a solar 

eclipse is a bad omen for the Gentile nations. 

This tetrad pattern starts in tears and ends in victory 

for the Jews. The other four dates with the 

tetrad pattern of lunar eclipses over Jewish holidays 

are 162/163, coinciding with the Roman 

Empire’s worst persecution of Jews and Christians 

when Antonine Plague killed eight million people 

within 3 years; 795/796, King Charlemagne 

of the Holy Roman Empire established a demilitarized 

zone between France and Spain, ending 

the Arab invasions into Western Europe; 842/843 

CE, the Vatican was attacked and looted by an 

Islamic invasion from Africa shortly after this tetrad; 

and 860/861, the Byzantine Empire defeated 

Arab armies at the Battle of Lalakaon in Turkey 

and permanently stopped the Islamic invasion of 

Eastern Europe. 

The pattern for 2014 is: 


2nd Blood Moon: Sukkot Oct. 8, 2014 

Eclipse Sun: Nisan 1 on Mar. 20, 2015 


4th Blood Moon: Sukkot Sep. 28, 2015 

Pastor John Hagee and Pastor Mark Blitz believe 

these are signs that signify a warning to the 

whole world something devastating will happen. 

The Jewish Talmud says: “When the moon is in 

eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel. If its face is as 

red as blood, the sword is coming to the world.” 

A Lunar Eclipse is bad omen for the Jewish people 

and Israel; a Blood Moon is a sword coming; 

and a Solar Eclipse is a bad omen for the world. 

The pattern is not coincidence. While the UN sits 

in silence over Jerusalem and the Jews, does the 

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? u 


Hermann Göll, 1876. | PD-US

The Fate 

of the 

Library of 

Alexandria 

- Margaret Smith -

42 | ORIGINS 

The famous Library of Alexandria (located in Alexandria, 

Egypt) has captured the interest of people 

for hundreds of years across the world. The Library 

was said to be home to thousands of scrolls 

and books; a center of learning unlike any other 

in the world. It was thought to be a library filled 

with knowledge from various Old World cultures 

which were translated over time to Greek. Unfortunately 

the library faced destruction hundreds 

of years after it was built. The Library and the 

knowledge within were burned, leaving only ashes 

as a distant memory. How did such a great library 

meet this catastrophic fate? 

I n Agora 

Hollywood, of course, has tried to answer this 

question for us. According to the movie Agora 

(2009; Alejandro Amenábar), the Library was 

sacked and burned down by a mob of Christians. 

In the movie, a group of Christians gathered within 

the agora to mock the Pagans’ gods. In order 

to answer this insult, a group of pagans marched 

into the agora and killed any Christian found. 

Bloodshed ensued, but the pagans were soon 

outnumbered and driven back to the Library of 

Alexandria, where they barred the gates to wait 

for the Roman troops to come and restore order. 

Emperor Theodosius was a Christian, and under 

his decree the pagans would be forgiven as 

long as they turned the Library over to the Christians 

at their will. The pagans were to be banned 

henceforth from entering the Library. As the pagans 

fled out the back gate of the Library with 

whatever they could carry, the Christians began 

flooding into the library and destroying whatever 

was left in their path. Once the mob settled 

down, almost all the scrolls within the library had 

been burned and the statues vandalized. In order 

to make use of the now empty library, the 

Christians set up a place of worship and stored 

livestock within the now vacant rooms. Although 

this makes for a very entertaining movie, is this 

truly what happened to the Library of Alexandria? 

I n Histo r y 

Truthfully, Hollywood could possibly be right on 

this one. Unfortunately, no one really knows. Historically, 

there are multiple accounts of the series 

of events that lead up to burning of the Library of 

Alexandria. To make matters even more confusing, 

there are actually two libraries of Alexandria. 

The first library was built sometime between 300- 

290 BCE by Ptolemy I and was referred to as the 

“Mother.” Later, sometime before 200 BCE, another 

library was built in Alexandria and was referred 

to as the “Daughter” library. Modern literature 

rarely distinguishes the two. 

If that is not already an indication as to how convoluted 

the history is...these multiple accounts do 

not even have a defined time frame. Not only 

is it unclear when the Library burned down, but 

which library, the location of the library, and who 

did the burning are mysteries (if a library called 

Alexandria ever burned down at all). Due to a series 

of earthquakes and floods in the North East 

section of the city of Alexandria, the Library may 

also have been 

destroyed by nature, obscuring any possible 

archaeology. This makes it difficult for researchers 

and archaeologists to discover new information, 

and limits what evidence can be compared to 

the various historic accounts. Three hypotheses 

on who burned down the Library of Alexandria 

include Julius Caesar, Theodosius, and Caliph 

Omar. 

We know that Julius Caesar visited the city in 48 

BCE while at war. The area managed to separate 

his fleet of ships and in order to win a battle, Julius 

had to burn down the Egyptian fleet which was 

blocking him from continuing. The fire managed 

to win Julius the battle, but it had unexpectedly 

spread, burning down parts of the city (including, 

possibly, the Library). 

In another story, Theophilus the Great was in the 

process of converting all of the Roman Empire 

to Christianity. In 391 CE, he burned down and 

sacked the Library of Alexandria. Knowing that the 

Library contained works from cultures and religions 

which would oppose his faith, he had the Pagan 

temple within the Daughter Library converted 

into a Christian Church. According to different 

accounts, Theophilus, who was the patriarch of 

the city of Alexandria, appealed to the Emperor 

Theodosius to lend his support in driving out the 


REVIEW IT | 43 

Screen capture of Hypatia holding scrolls from the Library in the 2009 film Agora. 

“The Burning of the Library at Alexandria in 391 AD” 

Illustration of the lithograph from Hutchinsons History of the Nations ca. 1910 by 

Robert Ambrose Dudley (1867-1951) | The Bridgeman Art Library (Object 357910). 


44 | ORIGINS 

Pagans from the Library. 

Caliph Omar, another possible culprit, was one 

of the generals leading a Muslim army through 

Egypt during the seventh century in order to 

expand their empire. While marching through 

Egypt, Caliph Omar heard of a great library which 

contained knowledge and books from all over 

the world. Omar became concerned and decided 

to have all of it burned because any books which 

had different information from what was in the 

Koran would be wrong. 

W h at Re a l ly Happened to the Library? 

No one really knows what happened to the Library 

of Alexandria. Scholars are split between which 

story truly happened. Historic literary sources are 

vague, biased, and possibly false, making it difficult 

to determine which ones hold the right information. 

Unfortunately, archaeology has not been 

able to render new information as of yet. 

It could be Hollywood is right on this one. Within 

the movie Agora, they stick to the story of Theophilus 

and Theodosius being responsible for 

burning the library. However, as presented here, 

there are two other stories which are also plausible. 

Some scholars even think the Library never 

really burned, or that the Library may have experienced 

multiple sackings and burnings over 

time. 

Since none of these accounts can be confirmed 

completely, due to conflicting literary sources 

and in part to a lack of archaeological evidence, it 

is up to the individual to form their own opinion 

based on the data. u 

Pictured: ISS025-E-009858 (28 Oct. 2010) --- 

From 220 miles above Earth, one of the Expedition 

25 crew members on the International Space 

Station took this night time photo featuring the 

bright lights of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt on 

the Mediterranean coast. The Nile River and its 

delta stand out clearly as well. On the horizon, 

the airglow of the atmosphere is seen across the 

Mediterranean. The Sinai Peninsula, at right, is 

outlined with lights highlighting the Gulf of Suez 

and Gulf of Aqaba. 


REVIEW IT | 45 

NASA/JSC PAO Web Team/Amiko Kauderer

Issue 9: Burning History & the Ashing of Science

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