Resurrecting the Dead (October, 2007)

By Robert M. Schoch
Boston University


Halloween will soon be upon us and lately I have found my thoughts preoccupied with the dead. According to one tradition, although the authenticity of such musings is often questionable as many “traditions” were not formulated explicitly until the 18th century and sometimes based on less than accurate historical data, Halloween combines elements of the Celtic / Irish Gaelic holiday Samhain (variously pronounced “Sow-in,” “Sow-en,” or “Sa-ven”) which celebrated the transition between the warm season and cold, summer to winter, and the Roman Catholic “All Saints’ Day” (“All Hallows’ Day”). Samhain occurred on October 31st according to our calendar, and All Hallows’ Day on or around November 1st (some place it on November 2nd). In other words, All Hallows’ Eve (the night before All Hallows’ Day) was concurrent with Samhain, and thus we derive our Halloween.

Summer, for many societies, is associated with the living and winter with the dead, as part of the annual cycle of life, death, and rebirth (resurrection). During Samhain (Halloween) the distinction between the living and dead, the earthly world and the spirit world, the carnate and the discarnate, became blurred. Spirtiual entities, be they the once living (such as deceased relatives), deamons, or demi-gods, mixed with humans in the flesh. The dead could be resurrected, at least in a sense, if only temporarily. Spirits might possess humans. Offerings to propriate the spirits were made, and seers would find it a propitious time to divine the future in terms of the onset of the cold, harsh months to follow. Clairvoyance among the perceptive could be enhanced during this period.

Parallels to some of the concepts and practices associated with Halloween of the Western tradition can be found elsewhere in the world. In modern times children may dress up as mummies - - and as ancient Egyptian mummies in particular. Even though Egyptian mummies are not directly associated with the ancient customs that led to our Halloween, the Egyptian beliefs surronding mummies are relevant to understanding ancient ideas in general.

The ancient Egyptians did not simply believe that a human had a soul, but rather developed very elaborate concepts of soul-components, still poorly understood by modern researchers. Possibly there were seven to ten different soul components, but the most important were the khat, ka, and ba. The khat was the physical body.

The ba has been interpreted as the “soul” or the “psychic force” of the individual, and was often represented in art as a bird. At death, it apparently was believed to leave the body (khat) and the ka, and entered the higher realms. What degree of individuality it retained is debatable. In different versions of Egyptian theology, the ba may be subjected to judgment for its deeds on earth before it is determined where it will spend eternity, or the ba may reenter the material world through another physical body (that is, a form of reincarnation).

The ka was a non-corporeal replica of the individual body, sometimes considered the life force of the body, which lived or remained, according to one version of Egyptian belief, as long as the physical body remained, thus the need for mummification. When the body finally disintegrated and disappeared, so did the ka. The ka was believed to occupy the tomb in the vicinity of the body, and it was for the sustenance and entertainment of the ka that food and goods were provided in the tomb, and scenes were painted on the walls. If the ka was not properly provided for, there was a belief that it would apparently last long enough to leave the tomb and haunt neglectful relatives and friends, bringing on their heads disease and misfortune. The idea of the revenge of the mummy, terrorizing innocent people, is not actually that far removed from ancient Egyptian ideas. This can be viewed as a temporary, if unsettling, resurrection of the dead.

But when I ponder resurrecting the dead, I am often thinking in a more academic sense. How do we reconstruct - - resurrect - - the peoples of cultures distant in time and space from the dry bones, scattered archaeological remains, and piecemeal myths and traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation? A fortuitous find, a lucky break, can suddenly open a whole new vista before our eyes. Just such a serendipitous find was reported in the September 15th, 2006, issue of the journal Science. A group of researchers, headed by Ma. del Carmen Rodríguez Martínez of the Centro del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Veracruz, Mexico, reported finding the “Oldest Writing in the New World.” A serpentine block was recovered from quarry operations in Cascajal, Veracruz, which lies in the heartland of the ancient Olmec civilization. Based on associated artifacts, they date the 14-inch by 8-inch block to about 900 BCE. On its face are 62 signs, pictographs, hieroglyphs, or elements, some of which are repeated up to four times; there are 28 different distinct elements.

Some of these signs may represent such things as an insect, maize (corn), a fish, eyes, an animal skin, and a mollusk bivalve. These elements are arranged in rough lines and apparently form a text. Whether the symbols are alphabetical or not is unclear. What seems to be clear is that this is an example of an ancient, formerly unknown, script. It has the potential to shed new light on the enigmatic Olmec culture, as well as the origins of writing and civilization in the New World, especially if more texts can be found and translations attempted. Of course, the Cascajal block may be an isolated artifact, perhaps the creation of a lone individual, and perhaps it has no precursors nor successors, but that seems unlikely, especially as it appears that some of the symbols on the block share similarities to previously known Olmec iconographic themes. Possibly, if there are more lucky finds, in the future we will be discussing Olmec literature and ideas, thoughts, preoccupations, and aspirations. In many ways, this would be a genuine resurrection of the dead.