Marie Jones - Viral Mythology: How the Truth of the Ancients was Encoded and Passed Down through Legend, Art, and Architecture

HOW THE TRUTH OF THE ANCIENTS WAS ENCODED AND PASSED DOWN THROUGH LEGEND, ART, AND ARCHITECTURE

MARIE D. JONES and LARRY FLAXMAN

Copyright 2014 by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

Unless otherwise indicated, images are in the public domain.

VIRAL MYTHOLOGY

EDITED BY JODI BRANDON

TYPESET BY EILEEN MUNSON

Cover design by Zoe Shtorm

Printed in the U.S.A.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Jones, Marie D., 1961

Viral mythology : how the truth of the ancients was encoded and passed down through legend, art, and architecture / Marie Jones, Larry Flaxman. -- 1

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: Behind every myth, fairy tale, and legend--hidden within the art, song, and structures of ancient times--is an encoded layer of wisdom, science, and truth passed down throughout history. This book will examine how information went viral long before the Internet, and served as the foundation for mythology, sacred architecture, and symbolic imagery throughout the ancient world-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-60163-295-1 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-60163-496-2 (ebook) 1. Myth. 2. Mythology. I. Flaxman, Larry. II. Title.

BL304.J66 2014

201.3--dc23

2013040943

This book is dedicated to
Max Jones and Mary Essa Flaxman.
The information of the past and present
is theirs to build a better future with.
May they use it well.

Marie and Larry would like to acknowledge Lisa Hagan, our amazing agent, who is a superhero who makes things happen! Thank you, Lisa, for everything! To Michael and Laurie Pye and the team at New Page Books, you guys ROCK. Thanks for another chance to spread our gospel and have fun doing it! To the amazing team at Warwick Associates, you make us look so good! To all the people who contributed to this book, we appreciate your time and insights more than we can say. And to our fans and followers and friends and radio hosts and supporters, and even our enemies, you guys make it all worthwhile; we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

To my mom, Milly, who never ceases to be there for me and is always supportive and loving, the best things a mom could ever be. What would I do without you? And to my dad, John, who watches from heaven, smiling, thanks for all you instilled in me and taught me. To my sister and best friend, Angella, you are my support column and confidante and so much more! To my brother, John, thanks for all your humor and craziness! To my dear friends, my writer colleagues, and my Wahines, what would I do without any of you?

Let me once again thank Larry Flaxman, for the long conversations that lead to new ideas, for the laughs, the friendship, the sad times we picked each other up, the happy times we bubbled over with excitement, for the long and frustrating periods of hard work, and then waiting for the payoffs, for pushing me to think deeper and wider and bigger and challenging me to do better and be a better person, and for all the amazing good times that await us as we venture forth into new territory. I treasure it all, Larry. Are you sick of me yet? There is so much more to come!

And to my son, Max, who is my universe, my sun, my moon, my heart, and my soul. Everything I do, I do it for you.

There are so many amazing people in my life that attempting to cram them all into a few paragraphs is impossible. With that being said, please know that I am eternally grateful, and would like to apologize in advance if I have failed to mention your name.

Firstly, I would like to thank my mom, Sheila, and my dad, Norman, for providing such a loving, nurturing childhood and upbringing. Those formative years have absolutely instilled in me the qualities and traits that have served to mold and form me into the man I am today. I am so incredibly honored to be your son and learn from the best. Not a day goes by that I dont miss seeing or hearing your voices. I love you both more than words, and look forward to the day that we will be reunited in The Grid.

I would also like to thank my wife, Emily, for understanding (and tolerating!) my often-hectic working hours and crazy travel schedule. I cant even imagine how difficult it must be!

In addition, I am extremely thankful to all of my friends, fans, and associates that provide me with advice, comments, ideas, and motivation. You folks make the long hours and sleepless nights worthwhile!

Marie D. Jones, I dont even know where to start. I look back over the last six years and continue to be amazed at what we have been able to accomplish together. We absolutely make one hell of a team! Despite both experiencing profound loss last year, we have managed to rise above, and motivate, inspire, and encourage not only others, but each other. I am so incredibly thankful that you are in my life. You are truly a wonderful friend, and I am so honored to not only call you my friend, but to work exclusively with you. My mom always used to say, To health, wealth, and happiness! and I couldnt agree more.

So this brings us to the last and most significant person that I would like to thank: my daughter, Mary Essa. I am so proud to call you my daughter. Words cannot even describe how much you mean to me. Every time I look in your eyes I see a window to my own soul. Your sense of wonderment mirrors and parallels my own, and I look forward to many more exciting adventures with you. I love you more than life itself!

by Heather Lynn, PhD

Consider for a moment a smartphone, laptop, and a desktop computer. Though individually different in appearance and function, these devices can often communicate with one another. In recent years, there has been a move toward cloud computing, whereby varying electronic devices can share and retrieve data through a remote source. In my point of view, this is somewhat analogous to the way information seemed to go viral among humans during ancient times. I call it the Cosmic Cloud Computing theory. However, by only looking at the material evidence that is found in the archaeological record, we may actually limit our understanding of how information spread in the ancient world.

First, we must establish how truly limited our knowledge of history is. Though primary schools may imply otherwise, our narrative of ancient cultures has only recently been written. Apart from a handful of religious texts, comparably few primary sources exist in the historical record about the lives and cultures of some of the earliest civilizations. Our current understanding of these civilizations is due in large part to the careful reconstruction of evidence from excavations and the subsequent analysis of artifacts. The greatest majority of this research has only been in the past few hundred yearsjust a speck on the time line of the history of man.