oldeuropeanculture
Regular Member
On mountain Devica there are hundreds of vrtača sink holes and many of them belong to the pan shaped shallow types with stone circles built around them. These stone circles could have been built around natural circular depressions which people cleared of stones or could be completely artificial. Regardless of how they were built, they are all ideal for solar observation.
For at least two of these stone circles, the stone circles on Bogovo Gumno, we know for sure that they were man made and used as solar observatory.
Mountain Devica could bee a huge ancient astronomical and religious center with dozens of aligned stone circles. But at the moment we just don't know.
None of these stone circles has ever been excavated or investigated by archaeologists.
Also we might never be able to determine when they were built even if we do conduct archaeological investigation in the are, because they remained in use until very recently. We know that at least Bogovo Gumno complex was recognized as an astronomical observatory and was used as such by the local peasant population until the end of the 19th and the the beginning of the 20th century . This is when the last aligned stone, an anthropomorphic cross with a votive inscription was added to the Bogovo Gumno complex.
Bogovo Gumno stone circles complex is linked with another complex of stone circles built thousands of miles away in Ireland: the Grange circles near Lough Gur...
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/07/stone-circles-on-mountain-devica.html
In Serbian word "deva", "devica" means Girl, virgin. Deva, Devica Marija is Virgin Mary. Mountain Devica, where we find many aligned stone circles and stones, is believed to have been named after Deva Marija, Virgin Mary. But did mountain Devica get its name after Devi Ognjena Marija, Goddess Fiery Marija, Perunika, Shakti (Živa), Indrana, the Great Goddess Devi? Is mountain Devica ancient religious complex dedicated to the Great Goddess, Devi, and if so when was it established and by whom? We might never find this out. But we know that local Serbian people still use this ancient religious complex to celebrate the Great Goddess even today under the name of Ognjena Marija.
In Serbian folk mythology, Ognjena Marija has been transformed into two female christian characters: St Marina, known also as St Margaret and St Mary Magdalene.
30th of July. St Marina, St Margaret, Ognjena Marija
2nd of August. St Ilija the thunderer
4th of August. St Marija Magdalena, Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) Marija
In Serbian tradition, Kresovi, the week of fire, starts with the fiery Marija and Ends with kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija. In the Irish tradition, Domhnach Crom Dubh used to start on the 31 of July, but now starts on the last Sunday in July. The 2nd of August, Perun day, Crom Dubh day, the day of Ilios the thundering sun, is actually the hottest day of the year in the Balkans. All summer the sun has been burning in the sky. This is the time of wild fires and drought. Everyone is praying for the first big thunderstorms to arrive and save the land from being burnt to cinder. And this is what Ognjena Marija delivers. In Serbia there is a saying: "Od svetog Ilije sunce sve milije" which means "From St Ilija the sun starts getting kinder, milder, gentler". The first part of the 2nd of August is considered summer and the second is considered to be Autumn. And this is what the transformation of Marija from Ognjena (Fiery) to Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) represents, The end of summer and beginning of autumn.
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/07/ognjena-marija.html
So on mountain Devica we have a Sun circle called Bogovo Gumno, which was built for determining the day of the summer solstice. So what? We have these types of circles all over Europe. Why is this one so significant? The answer to this quesiton is: because of its name and what its name means.
The meaning of the name "Bogovo Gumno" means God's Threshing floor.There is a local legend which says that the Circle is called God's Threshing floor because in the ancient times god came from heaven with his horses and he threshed grain there.
This directly links Sun circles with Sun worship and grain agriculture.
In 1950, Serbian ethnographer Nenad Janković published a book on folk astronomy called "Astronomija u predanjima, obicajima i umotvorinama Srba" (Astronomy in legends, customs and oral and written tradition of the Serbs). In it he expressed his great surprise at the ability of ordinary illiterate peasants to tell exact date and time without calendars and clocks. Professor Jankovic states that one of the main instruments used for these calendar and time calculations was the threshing floor. By looking at the shadow cast by the stožer, the central pole at sunrise, they were able to tell the date. And by looking at the shadow cast by the stožer, the central pole during the day they were able to tell the time. Threshing floor is a universal solar observatory, which at the same time can tell the date and the time.
Were the original henges threshing floors as well as a sun circles, solar observatories?
The threshing process is the final part of the harvest. It is the moment when the months of hard work finally turn into food. This is the moment when the people will find out whether they will feast or whether they will starve through the winter. But it is not just the months of hard work that were put into producing the grain that is being threshed at the threshing floor. These months were also months of prayers to the Sun, the god of Grain.
First there were spring prayers to the young god of Grain Jarilo. These prayers were performed during plowing and sawing season, to insure that the grain sprouts. The prayers were asking the young god of fertility to help insure that the land gets impregnated with the wheat seeds and that the wheat sprouts.
Second there were prayers to the mature god of Grain Vid. These prayers were performed during the growing of the grain, when sun is needed to grow the wheat seeds and fill them with goodness.
Third there were prayers to the old god of Thunder and Rain, Perun, Ilios. These prayers were performed during the ripening of the grain just before the harvest, when light rain is needed to ensure that the wheat is not destroyed by the drought.
But all these three gods are just three faces, three ages of one god, the god of grain, Dabog, the God that gives also known as Hromi Daba, Triglav, Thundering sun Ilios.
The threshing time is the time of truth. All the wheat is gathered on the threshing floor and the final, most important prayer to the god of Grain is uttered during the threshing process: "Please god give us enough grain so that we can survive through the winter". The threshing floor becomes the place where every year the relationship between the people and their god is being tested. If the harvest was bountiful, the god heard our prayers and has delivered. If the harvest was poor, the god did not hear our prayers or heard them and decided to ignore them. Why? What did we do wrong? What if we didn't do anything wrong, what if we were praying to the wrong god?
Were threshing floors, sun circles, the first temples dedicated to the Sun, the god of grain farmers?
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/08/bogovo-gumno-gods-threshing-floor.html
For at least two of these stone circles, the stone circles on Bogovo Gumno, we know for sure that they were man made and used as solar observatory.
Mountain Devica could bee a huge ancient astronomical and religious center with dozens of aligned stone circles. But at the moment we just don't know.
None of these stone circles has ever been excavated or investigated by archaeologists.
Also we might never be able to determine when they were built even if we do conduct archaeological investigation in the are, because they remained in use until very recently. We know that at least Bogovo Gumno complex was recognized as an astronomical observatory and was used as such by the local peasant population until the end of the 19th and the the beginning of the 20th century . This is when the last aligned stone, an anthropomorphic cross with a votive inscription was added to the Bogovo Gumno complex.
Bogovo Gumno stone circles complex is linked with another complex of stone circles built thousands of miles away in Ireland: the Grange circles near Lough Gur...
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/07/stone-circles-on-mountain-devica.html
In Serbian word "deva", "devica" means Girl, virgin. Deva, Devica Marija is Virgin Mary. Mountain Devica, where we find many aligned stone circles and stones, is believed to have been named after Deva Marija, Virgin Mary. But did mountain Devica get its name after Devi Ognjena Marija, Goddess Fiery Marija, Perunika, Shakti (Živa), Indrana, the Great Goddess Devi? Is mountain Devica ancient religious complex dedicated to the Great Goddess, Devi, and if so when was it established and by whom? We might never find this out. But we know that local Serbian people still use this ancient religious complex to celebrate the Great Goddess even today under the name of Ognjena Marija.
In Serbian folk mythology, Ognjena Marija has been transformed into two female christian characters: St Marina, known also as St Margaret and St Mary Magdalene.
30th of July. St Marina, St Margaret, Ognjena Marija
2nd of August. St Ilija the thunderer
4th of August. St Marija Magdalena, Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) Marija
In Serbian tradition, Kresovi, the week of fire, starts with the fiery Marija and Ends with kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija. In the Irish tradition, Domhnach Crom Dubh used to start on the 31 of July, but now starts on the last Sunday in July. The 2nd of August, Perun day, Crom Dubh day, the day of Ilios the thundering sun, is actually the hottest day of the year in the Balkans. All summer the sun has been burning in the sky. This is the time of wild fires and drought. Everyone is praying for the first big thunderstorms to arrive and save the land from being burnt to cinder. And this is what Ognjena Marija delivers. In Serbia there is a saying: "Od svetog Ilije sunce sve milije" which means "From St Ilija the sun starts getting kinder, milder, gentler". The first part of the 2nd of August is considered summer and the second is considered to be Autumn. And this is what the transformation of Marija from Ognjena (Fiery) to Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) represents, The end of summer and beginning of autumn.
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/07/ognjena-marija.html
So on mountain Devica we have a Sun circle called Bogovo Gumno, which was built for determining the day of the summer solstice. So what? We have these types of circles all over Europe. Why is this one so significant? The answer to this quesiton is: because of its name and what its name means.
The meaning of the name "Bogovo Gumno" means God's Threshing floor.There is a local legend which says that the Circle is called God's Threshing floor because in the ancient times god came from heaven with his horses and he threshed grain there.
This directly links Sun circles with Sun worship and grain agriculture.
In 1950, Serbian ethnographer Nenad Janković published a book on folk astronomy called "Astronomija u predanjima, obicajima i umotvorinama Srba" (Astronomy in legends, customs and oral and written tradition of the Serbs). In it he expressed his great surprise at the ability of ordinary illiterate peasants to tell exact date and time without calendars and clocks. Professor Jankovic states that one of the main instruments used for these calendar and time calculations was the threshing floor. By looking at the shadow cast by the stožer, the central pole at sunrise, they were able to tell the date. And by looking at the shadow cast by the stožer, the central pole during the day they were able to tell the time. Threshing floor is a universal solar observatory, which at the same time can tell the date and the time.
Were the original henges threshing floors as well as a sun circles, solar observatories?
The threshing process is the final part of the harvest. It is the moment when the months of hard work finally turn into food. This is the moment when the people will find out whether they will feast or whether they will starve through the winter. But it is not just the months of hard work that were put into producing the grain that is being threshed at the threshing floor. These months were also months of prayers to the Sun, the god of Grain.
First there were spring prayers to the young god of Grain Jarilo. These prayers were performed during plowing and sawing season, to insure that the grain sprouts. The prayers were asking the young god of fertility to help insure that the land gets impregnated with the wheat seeds and that the wheat sprouts.
Second there were prayers to the mature god of Grain Vid. These prayers were performed during the growing of the grain, when sun is needed to grow the wheat seeds and fill them with goodness.
Third there were prayers to the old god of Thunder and Rain, Perun, Ilios. These prayers were performed during the ripening of the grain just before the harvest, when light rain is needed to ensure that the wheat is not destroyed by the drought.
But all these three gods are just three faces, three ages of one god, the god of grain, Dabog, the God that gives also known as Hromi Daba, Triglav, Thundering sun Ilios.
The threshing time is the time of truth. All the wheat is gathered on the threshing floor and the final, most important prayer to the god of Grain is uttered during the threshing process: "Please god give us enough grain so that we can survive through the winter". The threshing floor becomes the place where every year the relationship between the people and their god is being tested. If the harvest was bountiful, the god heard our prayers and has delivered. If the harvest was poor, the god did not hear our prayers or heard them and decided to ignore them. Why? What did we do wrong? What if we didn't do anything wrong, what if we were praying to the wrong god?
Were threshing floors, sun circles, the first temples dedicated to the Sun, the god of grain farmers?
You can read more here:
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/08/bogovo-gumno-gods-threshing-floor.html