Tuesday, 10 March 2026
Kicking Balls - a poem by Alun Buffry, May 2025
KICKING BALLS
by
Alun Buffry
(May 2025)
That day did come I said goodbye,
And daily since I'd want to cry,
'Cos heaven's not in clouds on high,
And Angels not up in the sky.
The Master said it's all within,
No Karma comes from past lives' sins.
The world we take upon the chin,
And on we struggle thick and thin.
Those that passed on from our sight,,
We wonder if perhaps we might
Meet once more on lofty height
Beyond this world and all its plights.
Illusion, monks tell us, is all around
As beaten gongs that speed their sounds,
Vibrating air and through the ground
To free us from our temple mounds.
One day each one of us must go
And only then we'll surely know
The crops that grew from seed we'd sowed.
And answers to our lifetime's woes.
We live our lives between two walls.
We walk our paths with its pitfalls.
In truth I say, all in all,
What fun I had kicking life's balls.
Alun Buffry
(May 2025)
That day did come I said goodbye,
And daily since I'd want to cry,
'Cos heaven's not in clouds on high,
And Angels not up in the sky.
The Master said it's all within,
No Karma comes from past lives' sins.
The world we take upon the chin,
And on we struggle thick and thin.
Those that passed on from our sight,,
We wonder if perhaps we might
Meet once more on lofty height
Beyond this world and all its plights.
Illusion, monks tell us, is all around
As beaten gongs that speed their sounds,
Vibrating air and through the ground
To free us from our temple mounds.
One day each one of us must go
And only then we'll surely know
The crops that grew from seed we'd sowed.
And answers to our lifetime's woes.
We live our lives between two walls.
We walk our paths with its pitfalls.
In truth I say, all in all,
What fun I had kicking life's balls.
Monday, 9 March 2026
Sunday, 8 March 2026
Haoma, Zoroastrian drink of cannabis, poppy and ephedra
The sacred Zoroastrian drink, Haoma (cognate with Vedic Soma), is traditionally identified as a ritual beverage made from ephedra. However, some archaeological evidence from Central Asian temples suggests that ancient, pre-Zoroastrian or early, ritual, infusions可能 included a combination of psychoactive plants, including cannabis, ephedra, and opium poppy.
Saturday, 7 March 2026
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Friday, 6 March 2026
'Cleopatra: The Experience’ immersive show opens in UK later this March
UK: 'Cleopatra: The Experience’ immersive show opens in UK later this March
The exhibition is spread over more than 3,000 square metres and featuring nine interactive galleries.
The
exhibition offers an immersive journey into Ancient Egypt, placing
visitors inside the world of Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the
Ptolemaic Dynasty. The event has already run in Madrid, where it
welcomed more than 200,000 visitors, further global dates are planned
after London.
Alongside immersive technology, the exhibition showcases a curated selection of more than 22 original artefacts from the Hellenistic and Late Egyptian periods.
One Standout area is Cleopatra’s private chamber, where Cleopatra
appears on interactive mirrors. A large interactive map of Alexandria
features 5D sensory effects, including atmospheric scents.
The
experience climaxes in a projection mapping and sound show projected
onto a five-metre recreation of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The penultimate gallery immerses visitors in a 360-degree, 8t-metre-high cinematic projection space. The exhibition concludes with a seated VR experience, recreating the earthquake that submerged Alexandria beneath the sea and the search for Cleopatra’s lost tomb.
2 songs by Alun Buffry, vocals and music by AI: "I Can See You" and "River of Life"
Thursday, 5 March 2026
Archaeologists Discovered a Funerary Complex Left Untouched for Nearly 4,000 Years
Archaeologists Discovered a Funerary Complex Left Untouched for Nearly 4,000 Years
Popular Mechanics March 4 2026
Finds from the site include necklaces, amulets, and cursive hieroglyphs inscribed on pots.
Along the west bank of the Nile near Aswan, Egypt, a series of rock-cut tombs have been holding centuries of history and artifacts. A renewed excavation at the Oubbet el-Hawa site has uncovered some of it, digging up a funerary complex with roots coinciding with the construction of the great pyramids of the Old Kingdom from 2686 to 2181 B.C.E.
While scouring the funerary shafts and chambers of the rocky outcropping, archaeologists discovered that the location was much more than an Old Kingdom burial plot, with plenty of evidence of reuse. First built during the age of the great pyramids, the site was then repurposed during the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom, showing the prominence Oubbet el-Hawa held for centuries.
Archaeologists Unearthed a 1,000-Year-Old Tomb Filled With Gold
Remains of one person, likely a high status individual, lay at the center of the tomb, surrounded by the gold and other human remains.
Archaeologists have finally dug into a tomb first identified in Panama in 2009, and their excavation efforts have quite literally struck gold.
As crews excavated the archaeological site El Caño in the Coclé province of Panama, work inside the tomb dubbed Tomb 3 is expanding the known funerary record of the country’s central provinces between the eighth and 11th centuries C.E. The team discovered that the complex structure was full of golden grave goods, including bracelets, ear ornaments, and pectoral plates. There were also plenty of elaborately decorated ceramics, some with iconography highlighting local artisan traditions.
The find, as revealed in a translated statement from the Panama Ministry of Culture, is now being called one of the most important pre-Hispanic cemeteries in the region. “We are ready to tell the world much more about our cultural wealth,” Maria Eugenia Herrera, Panama’s minister of culture, said in a statement.
Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Extract from Myhat in Egypt Through the Eyes of a God
Myhat in Egypt Through the Eyes of a God
Ana pointed to a worker who was doing something amidst a field of green crop. He was wearing just a loin cloth. It was very hot, much hotter than Ed had expected for quite early in the day. Ed felt overdressed in the djellaba over his jeans and tee-shirt, with me still clinging onto his head.
When they reached the worker, Ana spoke to him in Arabic.
The man shrugged and said something back. He was staring straight at me; I knew that I fascinated him and he wanted me on his head – not that Ed knew, but I would not have minded for a while, just to see through the man's eyes.
“He's saying hello, I think,” Ana said, turning to Ed.
“It's not Arabic though, it's more like Berber, the language they still speak in the desert in Morocco. I didn't know they spoke it here. I'll try and ask him where we are.”
Ana tried a few words and pointed around the place where they stood.”
The man pointed across the river and said “Oo – are – set.”
Ana looked at him and pointed also across the river. She said “Luxor?”
The man shrugged and said “Happy”.
Ana said said something that was not English and smiled. “Temple of Hatshepsut?” she asked.
Another shrug.
“Temple Karnak? Ramasseum?”
No response to that, just a big smile on his face and a small bow.
“Oo – are - set! Oo – are - set!” he said pointing and laughing.
“I don't know those words,” said Ana, “maybe it's somebody's name, like his boss? Or just an oo - are”
“Oh well,” said Ed, “From what I can guess, if we go round the hill we should find the road back to the village or at least see something familiar. It's kind of weird here. It doesn't look at all right. I just can't fathom where we are.”
They bowed slightly to the smiling man and set out to walk around the end of the hill that covered the tombs and tunnels they had passed through. From there, Ed thought, they should be able to see Luxor and the Temple.
In fact they did see a town spread out on the other side of the Nile, quite a large place but it was certainly not Luxor.
There were no big buildings or hotels, no Temple, just what looked like a palace. There were no tourist cruise boats moored there, no feluccas, just small craft, going back and forth across the river. There was no ferry.
Ed was quite stressed out by now, I could tell, and I too was getting concerned that they were lost. Yet this side was not exactly a huge area, just fields between the hills and the river.
It just looked like somewhere completely different, as if they had exited the tunnels many miles up or down stream, somewhere they had never been before. They found no road, saw no trace of human habitation except for the few men working in the fields.
“The phone's still not working,” said Ana, “I think we better go back and find that boulder and get back to Ayman and find out what's going on. Maybe he knows where we are. Maybe he has been here himself.”
They walked back round the hill and scrambled up to find the chalk marks.
As Ed was about to climb through the gap above the boulder with the chalk mark, Ana asked “Is this yours?”
She passed Ed a small lighter which had a picture of the pyramids on. Ed flicked it, but it didn't work. He put it in his pocket anyway. It was a very hot day and I knew that Ed was keen to get back into the cool tunnels.
They quickly climbed back into the tunnel and followed the chalk marks, much faster than it had taken them coming this way, not stopping so much. There were several other tunnels leading off at points, so I sensed Ed was glad he'd marked the way. He had not noticed them all on the way through.
Just about half an hour later, they exited through to the garden in the dilapidated house.
“I'll phone Ayman,” said Ed.
As he looked at his own mobile phone, he said “Well I get a signal but my phone says it's only eight-thirty”
Ana checked her own phone. “Weird, mine too. But it must have been two o'clock at least when we turned back, the sun was really high and I'm sure we were away for longer than that. We've definitely been gone for more than a few hours. It took over an hour to get through to the other end and we were there for at least four hours.”
Ed phoned Ayman and said that they were back but that they had a problem so would like to meet him again later.
Ed and Ana left the garden, covering once again the entrance to the tunnels behind them.
They walked back to the hotel; sure enough it was only late morning.
They had black tea with milk and a late breakfast of corn flakes with milk, eggs and bread and sweet cakes and orange juice. They were both very hungry.
Ed took out some maps of the area and began scrutinising them.
“I can't work this out at all,” he said, “whichever way we went and wherever we came out on the hillside, we ought to have been able to see Luxor and the Temples and we should have found the road. And I don't know why there weren't any boats. There aren't any towns that size for miles”
He decided to walk the short distance from the hotel towards the river. Ana said that she wanted to take a rest so he went alone.
Ed saw everything was as as it should be. There was the river, the ferry and, on the East Bank, he could see the cruise boats and Luxor town along with its Temple and tall lush hotels. Plenty of people about too, as usual, carrying on their daily business, taxies and trucks, donkeys pulling carts.
Puzzled still, he went back to the hotel.
Ana said that Ayman had phoned her to say that Youssef would pick them up at six o'clock.
“I've been thinking about what that guy said. You know when he pointed and said Oo – are - set?
“Well there's nowhere here called that and I asked the manager at reception if he knew anyone called that or any place and he said no. But he said that centuries ago the old place was called Waset even before it was called Thebes.”
“I looked it up and he's right but that was four thousand years ago, in the time of Pharaohs Senusret the First and Amenemhat the Second.”
Ah, another Hat, I thought, maybe an ancestor. Remember dear reader, that I had also heard of a woman Pharaoh called Hatshepsut, who also had a temple built here.
Ana continued: “The books say they were Twelfth dynasty, after Mentuhotep the Second, Eleventh dynasty. They'd had a war with the North which lasted for about fifty years and then many of the Nomes were united. The town was called Waset. Waset was a Goddess.”
“Maybe what we saw was some sort of touristy replica or something, but it must be a huge site. We''ll ask Ayman about it this evening,” said Ed.
“Pretty weird. I'm going to ask Ayman if we can go back; we'll cross the river and find out what's going on,” said Ed.
Monday, 2 March 2026
Song (AI) The River of Life by Alun Buffry
AI produced version of a song from my poem "The River of Life"
I would welcome any human being that can produce a better version of these words to music
River of Life!
Whether we laugh, or whether we cry,
the river of life goes rushing by,
down the hills and mountain sides,
into valleys, long and wide,
towards the ocean that is its goal,
it's journey travelled by our soul.
When I was but a little boy,
the river rippled and dashed with joy,
and as I grew and longed to learn,
the river for the ocean yearned.
As young man travelled round the world,
the river twisted, turned and twirled,
eager to find it's resting place,
eager to travel in time and space.
And as the seeking man grew older,
the river found the bigger boulders,
but on it travelled without care,
it knew it's destiny's not there.
The rushing water's now quite slow,
the river old has nothing to show,
it's happiness is calm and deep,
as old man takes his final sleep.
The ocean that is never ending,
is to the sky it's waters lending,
to rain again on mountain top,
to make sure life's rivers never stop.
The rivers message lies in this
Ocean of Mercy, Peace and Bliss
The River Aru in Kashmir, where I wrote these words in 1981
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Origins of Egypt's Great Pyramid upended as clues point to lost civilization from 20,000 years ago
Origins of Egypt's Great Pyramid upended as clues point to lost civilization from 20,000 years ago.
by
For more than a century, Egyptologists have dated the Great Pyramid to around 2580 BC, about 4,600 years ago.
A controversial new study now claims the monument could be tens of thousands of years older.
Italian engineer Alberto Donini from the University of Bologna said erosion patterns at the pyramid's base suggest it may have been built between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, far earlier than the conventional timeline.
Donini's Relative Erosion Method (REM) estimated the pyramid's age by comparing how much erosion occurred on stones exposed since construction with nearby stones whose exposure time is known.
By measuring the difference in wear, he calculated how long the older stones have been exposed, producing dates that far exceed traditional estimates.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, examined twelve points around the pyramid's base. Some measurements suggested tens of thousands of years of erosion, with the average pointing to roughly 25,000 years.
Donini also proposed that Pharaoh Khufu may have renovated the pyramid rather than built it, potentially revising assumptions about its original authorship.
If the dates proposed by Donini are accurate, the Great Pyramid could predate not only the reign of Khufu but also the rise of any known advanced civilizations, raising fundamental questions about human history and architectural knowledge in the distant past.
The Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau, was built by Pharaoh Khufu during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty.
It sits alongside the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Menkaure and the Great Sphinx, all shrouded in mystery due to their precise alignment, unusual construction methods, and debated purpose.
The new study measured erosion at twelve points around the base of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
At each point, Donini compared limestone surfaces that had been exposed since the pyramid's construction with adjacent surfaces that were only exposed after the outer casing blocks were removed about 675 years ago.
He measured the volume of eroded material on both surfaces and calculated a ratio, which allowed him to estimate how long the older stones had been exposed.
Each point produced a different age, ranging from about 5,700 to over 54,000 years.
However, the average suggested a 68 percent probability that the pyramid was built between roughly 11,000 and 39,000 years ago, with an overall average of about 24,900 years.
Donini emphasized that REM does not provide a precise construction date, but rather an estimate of the structure's age range with an associated probability.
Although the resulting date ranges are wide, the conclusions indicate a low probability for the official archaeological dating of 2,560 BC,' he said.
The study challenges long-held assumptions about ancient Egypt and has ignited debate among archaeologists, historians and engineers.
Some scholars have pointed out that evidence for the pyramid’s construction has always relied heavily on textual sources, like the later inscriptions found inside the monument, which may not reflect the original building period.
Donini’s approach differs from traditional archaeological dating, which often relies on historical records, carbon dating of organic material, or stylistic comparisons with other monuments.
By focusing on the physical erosion of the stone itself, REM offers a method that is independent of historical accounts, providing an entirely new perspective on the pyramid’s age.
The study also acknowledges that many factors, including climate variation, acid rain, foot traffic, and partial burial under sand, introduce uncertainty into the calculations. Despite these variables, the consistent results across twelve measurement points strengthen the claim that the pyramid’s base has endured tens of thousands of years of exposure.
Whether the findings will overturn centuries of Egyptological consensus remains to be seen, but the research has already reopened one of archaeology’s most enduring mysteries.
Monday, 23 February 2026
Egypt discovers 4,300-year-old body wrapped in pure gold inside limestone coffin
Egypt discovers 4,300-year-old body wrapped in pure gold inside limestone coffin
Business Insider Africa,
- Archaeologists discovered a 4,300-year-old gold-wrapped mummy in a sealed limestone coffin at Saqqara, Egypt.
- The mummy belonged to Heka-shepes and dates back to the Old Kingdom’s Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.
- Gold symbolized divinity and eternal life in ancient Egypt, and its use in burial rites indicated elite status.
- The find coincides with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, enhancing Egypt’s appeal to tourists.
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, working with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, identified the deceased as Heka-shepes based on inscriptions within the burial chamber.
The tomb dates back to Egypt’s Fifth and Sixth Dynasties during the Old Kingdom period.
Gold as a symbol of divinity and status
Earth.com reported that the body was wrapped in sheets of gold leaf that had remained undisturbed since burial. In ancient Egypt, gold symbolised the flesh of the gods and eternal life.
Artisans hammered the metal into thin sheets and pressed it onto the wrappings using resin, a process reserved for a small elite.
The use of gold in burial rites signalled both immense wealth and spiritual aspiration. Most Old Kingdom tombs were looted over time, making intact discoveries of this scale rare.
For modern Egypt, gold remains economically strategic. The country is among Africa’s notable gold producers, with mining exports contributing to foreign exchange earnings.
The ancient association with gold continues to shape Egypt’s
global brand as a cradle of wealth, craftsmanship and civilisation.
Cultural capital and tourism
The discovery comes as Egypt expands its tourism offering with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a landmark project near the Giza Pyramids that is now welcoming visitors.
The museum, one of the largest archaeological museums in the world, houses more than 100,000 artefacts and is expected to significantly boost visitor numbers.
ourism remains a key foreign currency earner for Africa’s second-largest economy, and high-profile discoveries often fuel renewed global interest in Egypt’s heritage.
Saqqara, located near the Step Pyramid of Djoser, has produced a series of major finds in recent years. Each announcement reinforces Egypt’s soft power and its status as a global centre of ancient civilisation.
Officials say conservation teams are now working to stabilise the mummy and associated artefacts. Preserving fragile materials such as wood, textiles and pigment requires controlled conditions and detailed scanning before items are moved or displayed.
For Egypt, the gold-wrapped mummy is more than an archaeological milestone.
It is a reminder that gold has long been intertwined with the country’s wealth, belief systems and global standing, from the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom to modern export markets across Africa and beyond.
Saturday, 21 February 2026
My Weed and I, Stoned Again! by Al Zeeman
My Weed and I, Stoned Again! by Al Zeeman aka Alun Buffry
Al Zeeman first consumed cannabis in 1970 whilst at University, firstly in the form of “Coffee Bhangs” and hash cakes, then smoking mixed with tobacco or pure in pipes. After graduating, he travelled across Europe to India and back, stopping off in several places such as Kabul to sample the hasheesh.
Upon returning from
India, he started following the teaching and practices of Prem Rawat,
then known as “Guru Maharaji”, a fifteen year old from India.
A
few years later, Al started smoking cannabis again and continued to so
for almost 50 years, including his time in several UK prisons. He
continued to follow Prem Rawat which he still does today.
But
during the time since 1970, Al Zeeman travelled widely throughout
Europe, also visiting Morocco, India, Nepal, Kashmir and Egypt, meeting
many people and smoking hos weed (and theirs) and was so often "stoned
again”.
The author also participated in “Legalise
Cannabis Campaigns” for over thirty years, even standing for Parliament
under the banner of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) on the single
issue, in 2001.
This is his account of his experiences, the places he saw and some of the friends he made.
This
book, along with many amusing anecdotes, recalls his encounters and
near misses with the forces of law in the UK. Also the book contains a
wealth of information on the uses of cannabis / hemp, the types and
sources, smoking utensils, some political opinions and a chronology of
cannabis.
Zeeman pays tribute to the cannabis campaigners and
enthusiasts that he met along the way, many of whom have now passed on,
including Howard Marks, Chris Baldwin, Don Barnard, Winston Matthews,
Mark and Lezley Gibson, Clara O’Donnell, Jack and Tina Girling, Lee
Harris, Steve Pank, Jooep Oomen and “Granny” Pat Tabram.
At the end of the book, Zeeman gives his birth name, Alun Buffry, stating that he has never made any attempt to hide his identity.
Table of Contents:
NICOLAS CULPEPER, CANNABIS LAWS – PROHIBITION, COFFEE-BHANGS AND HASH CAKES, THE DEALER’S HAT, FIRST CHILLUM, A BRUSH OR TWO WITH THE LAW, FRANKFURT, MUNICH, BELGRADE, ISTANBUL, AFYON /AFYONKARAISHAR, THE FISHERMAN ON THE BEACH, HEADING EAST, AFGHANISTAN, KABUL, HELMUT, KHYBER PASS AND ONWARDS TO INDIA, INDIA: HARIDWAR AND THE GANGES, NORFOLK, THE WRECKING CREW, BUSTED, WICKLEWOOD, MR NICE, JACK AND LILY, STANLEY ATKINS, JOE HARDY-SHARP,POLISH CHRIS – CHRIS LAUSCH, MONTY, LESLEY JAMES, THE “BIG MONEY GANG”,CAMPAIGN TO LEGALISE CANNABIS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION 1992, BANGED UP, HOWARD MARKS, MR NICE 1997,THE LEGALISE CANNABIS ALLIANCE (LCA) 1999, TRAVELLING HIGH, NOL VAN SHAIK’S SPANISH COMPLEX, CAMPAIGN GROUPS DURING AND AFTER THE LCA, METHODS OF CONSUMPTION, TYPES AND SOURCES OF CANNABIS, RECREATIONAL OR MEDICAL, CANNABIS ABROAD, HOLLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, IRELAND, GERMANY, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, GREECE, ITALY: SICILY, MOROCCO, INDIA, OTHER COUNTRIES, THE BAD STUFF, GROW YOUR OWN, CANNABIS PROTESTS, HEADSHOPS, SMOKEY BEARS PICNICS, RALLIES AND MARCHES, COFFEESHOPS, BYE BYE, A CHRONOLOGY OF CANNABIS.
Thursday, 19 February 2026
Forget Me Not - In Loving Memory
Featuring: (some are extra photos of the same person several years apart)
John Sullivan, Cedric Skinner, Paul Jolin (Australian Paul), Richard Scott (Scotty), Keith Marshall, Phyllis Franklin, Judith Dawson, Greg Hurn, Klarika, Vera and Stanley Buffry, Aaron Whitehead, Keith Huckle, Mick Smith, Graham Whitehead (Monty), Roger Martin, Tim Sillence, Billy, Lou Whitehead, Mark Angus, Levi McCarthy, Larna Simmons, Levi McCarthy (2), Bob Wilton, Ingrid Waters, Joe Thompson, Nigel Ellis (Nudge) Susan Bewsick, Vera Buffry, Joe Hardy-Sharpe, Sid Grubb, Vera Buffry (2), Smiley Wilde, Stanley Atkins, Damien Donnelly, Harold the Baker, Lesley James, Chris Lausch (Polish Chris), German Jonny, Lesley James (2), Liza Frost, Claudi Stiller, Spider Gill, Larna Simmons (2), Beryl Jackson, Norbert Stiller, Patrick Rowlings, Pete Hunter, Dave Barker (Woofer), John Davies, Anne Clarke, Jackie Barnard, Colin Paisley, Jaime Carran, Larna Simmons, Mick Pryce, Susan Beswick, Alistair Stevenson, Edie Ellison, Howard Marks (Mr Nice), Derrick Large, George Bacon, Chrissie, Miroslav, Don Barnard (2), Lesley James (3), Paul Fowler, Chris Baldwin, Marcus Davis, Jack Girling, Mick Pryce, Don Barnard, Tom Hamson, Pat Tabram (Grannie Pat), Lynn Zimmer, Winston Matthews, Joep Oomen, Ivor Garfield, Clare Gardner, Sheriff Lyness, Liza Frost, Peter Donnelly (Paddy), Andre Furst, Davy English, Jaime Carren (2), John Cripps, Maggie Bevan, Mandy Medlar, Paul Flynn MP, Phil Stovell, Julian McAlistair, Christine Humphreys, Don Good, Smiler, Miroslav, Frank Kirk, Colin Campbell-Clarke, Jane Stevenson Liz Gotto (Warden), Sue Duggan, Robo Linders, Keith Huckle, Anne Clarke, Alistair Stevenson (2), John Banham, Mike Beavis, Lee Harris, Lesley James (4), Sid Carter (Siddy), Nick Herne, Jack Girling (2), Fernada de la Figuera, Charlie Briston, Marcus Davis, Winston Matthews, Alysia Solomon, Ali Baktoo, Lesley James (5), Simon Edye (Ronaldos Icecream), Miroslav, Miroslav (2), Jackie OToole, Frank Kirk, Nol van Shaik, Winston Matthews, Lesley James (6) Allan Ivans, Ian Harris, Roger Warren_Evans, Allan Ivans (2), Alysia Solomon (2).
Wednesday, 18 February 2026
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Egyptian researchers discover collection of ancient rock art spanning 10,000 years in Sinai desert
Jerusalem Post February 17 2026
Egyptian researchers discover collection of ancient rock art spanning 10,000 years in Sinai desert
The engravings and drawings are divided into several groups, researchers learned in their initial study of the space, the oldest of which are done in red and dated to between 10,000 and 5,500 BCE.
A shelter containing rock art spanning nearly 10,000 years was discovered by a team of archaeologists in the southern Sinai, the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced last week.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is the name given to an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC.Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1,000 years. In 1842, the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius introduced for these texts the German name Todtenbuch (modern spelling Totenbuch), translated to English as 'Book of the Dead'. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw, is translated as Spells of Coming Forth by Day.
The Book of the Dead, which was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, which were painted onto objects, not written on papyrus. Some of the spells included in the book were drawn from these older works and date to the 3rd millennium BC. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (11th to 7th centuries BC). A number of the spells which make up the Book continued to be separately inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as the spells from which they originated always had been.
There was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.
The finest extant example of the Egyptian in antiquity is the Papyrus of Ani. Ani was an Egyptian scribe. It was discovered in Luxor in 1888 by Egyptians trading in illegal antiquities. It was acquired by E. A. Wallis Budge, as described in his autobiography By Nile and Tigris in 1888 and was taken to the British Museum, where it remains.
https://www.getty.edu/news/what-is-the-egyptian-book-of-the-dead/
“Book of the Dead” is a modern term to describe a series of ancient Egyptian ritual spells (instructions and incantations).
These helped the deceased find their way to the afterlife and become united with the sun god Re and the netherworld god Osiris in a continual cycle of renewal and rebirth.
There are nearly 200 known spells, but they weren’t collected into books in our current sense of the word. Rather, assemblages of spells were inscribed on objects from mummy wrappings to coffins to figurines to papyrus scrolls, all meant to accompany the dead in the tomb. They provided instructions for the various challenges the deceased would face on their journey. Spell 125, for example, lists a number of misdeeds they must deny having committed in life when they appear before Osiris.
Spells from the Book of the Dead
What are these spells like?
We use the word ‘spell’ to indicate the individual sections of a Book of the Dead. They are also often referred to as ‘chapters’ or ‘utterances’.
The spells were written down to help the person named in the papyrus to pass safely through any difficult or dangerous situations in the afterlife. One of the most important spells is Chapter or Spell 125 which usually contains a scene showing the heart of the dead person being weighed against maat (divine order and cosmic balance). The same spell also contains a long text referred to as the Negative Confession, in which the dead person recites a number of things he or she has not done.
Ordering and selection of spells
The numbering system used today to identify the different spells was first assigned by the German scholar Richard Lepsius in 1842. He published a Ptolemaic Book of the Dead and numbered the individual spells in the order they appeared in that particular papyrus. It is clear that this order was not particularly standardised and the selection of spells varies too from papyrus to papyrus, probably according to the arrangement determined by the scribe responsible.
We do not know whether the person buying a papyrus would necessarily be involved in selecting and ordering the spells. In some cases it is clear that the person whose name appears on the papyrus had purchased one that was already pre-written, with spaces left for the buyer’s name to be inserted. This is not the case with Ramose’s Book of the Dead.
— Book of the Dead, spell 30B
The section imploring the heart reads:
O my heart of my mother! O my heart of my mother! O my heart of my different forms! Do not stand up as a witness against me, do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance, for you are my ka which was in my body, the protector who made my members hale. Go forth to the happy place whereto we speed, do not make my name stink to the Entourage who make men. Do not tell lies about me in the presence of the god. It is indeed well that you should hear!
Spell 9: Identifies the owner with the god
Words spoken by Ani: 'O you Soul [ba], greatly majestic, behold, I have come that I may see you; I open the Netherworld that I may see my father Osiris and drive away darkness, for I am beloved of him. I have come that I may see my father Osiris and that I may cut out the heart of Seth who has harmed my father Osiris. I have opened up every path which is in the sky and on earth, for I am the well-beloved son of my father Osiris. I am noble, I am a spirit [akh], I am equipped; O all you gods and all you spirits [akhu], prepare a path for me.
Spell 42. contains a list of all the essential parts of the body and their divine parallels.
My hair is Nu; my face is Ra; my eyes are Hathor; my ears are Wepwawet; my nose is She who presides over her lotus leaf; my lips are Anubis; my molars are Selkis; my incisors are Isis the goddess; my arms are the Ram, the Lord of mendes; my breast is Neith, Lady of Sais; my back is Seth; my phallus is Osiris; my muscles are the Lords of Kheraha; my chest is he who is greatly majestic; my belly and my spine are Sekhmet; my buttocks are the Eye of Horus; my thighs and my calves are Nut; my feet are Ptah; my toes are living falcons; there is no member of mine devoid of a god, and Thoth is the protection of all my flesh.
Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Recommended reading and TV
I have just finished very much enjoyed "The Untold Story of Christine Bott" bt Catherine Hayes
ISBN 9781838338824 - it's not available on Amazon at the moment but maybe through a bookshop.
On IPlayer I enjoyed the two series "Waiting for the Out" and "Small Prophets"
Monday, 16 February 2026
Sunday, 15 February 2026
A UK Cannabis Activism Retrospective: A Simpa Life Broadcast interview with Winston Matthews and Alun Buffry
A slight problem with quality at start but stick with it.
RIP Winston Matthews
Kabul to Peshawar via the Khyber Pass - Meeting Hellmut, 1972
Taken from "All About My Hat, The Hippy Trail 1972"
Peshawar and the Khyber Pass
It was 180 miles from Kabul to Peshawar, across the Khyber Pass.
Keith read quietly from his guide book:
“Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province, and the administrative centre and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
"Peshawar is situated in a large valley near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, close to the Pakistan-Afghan border. Known as "City on the Frontier", Peshawar's strategic location on the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia has made it one of the most culturally vibrant and lively cities in the greater region. Peshawar is irrigated by various canals of the Kabul River, Kunhar River and by its right tributary, the Bara River.
“Being among the most ancient cities of the region between Central, South and West Asia, Peshawar has for centuries been a centre of trade between Afghanistan, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. As an ancient centre of learning, the second century BC. Bakhshali Manuscript used in the Bakhshali approximation was found nearby.
“In 1947, Peshawar became part of the newly created Pakistan after politicians from the Frontier approved the merger.
“Over 99% of Peshawar's population is Muslim, mostly Sunnis, with Twelver Shias the significant minority group. Despite the mainly Islamic nature of modern Peshawar, the city was previously home to a diverse range of communities, such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Zoroastrians and members of the Bahá'í Faith. A significant number of Sikhs, in addition to smaller communities of Hindus and Christians, continue to exist in Peshawar”
“That is very interesting, I did not know that history”, said a voice with a German accent belonging to a man that sat opposite us.
“My name is Hellmut. You want smoke some joint?”
He had lit and was offering them a joint – on the bus!
Well, I could tell Al liked the smell so he quickly accepted it with a “Danke” (thank you in German, Al thought). He took three rapid puffs and passed it to Keith who took three puffs and passed what was left back to Hellmut.
Al was feeling quite self-conscious about smoking on a bus heading to Pakistan. He thought everyone was looking.
He turned round to look back down the bus.
Almost every seat had a man leaning out and looking back up the bus at him!
And, Al noticed, they were all grinning and smiling and nodding, as if to say “You are stoned now, as we are stoned too."
Al thought those men probably did not smoke cannabis but it must have been in their blood, handed down over the centuries.
He relaxed, chatted with Helmut a while. Helmut said he travelled that route every year for ten years. Then as the calming effect of the lovely hash took over, he sat and started to enjoy what was to be an incredible journey through the Khyber Pass.
The over-laden coach trundled on, struggling up hills and rounding bends with sheer drops, then down and up again. At the end of most down bits there was a small waterfall. At the end of each up bits there was a beautiful view, often including the same road below them, winding around the boulders in between the fields.
At some places there were what looked like caves in the sides of the hills.
We passed small groups of men that seemed to be just sitting and looking; we saw young boys driving herds of sheep or goats or camels and several times we had to stop to let them pass us.
Occasionally we saw groups of women carrying baskets, bundles or clay pots on their heads, trailed by urchin-looking children – her children always waving at the coach.
The women here were dressed very differently and, Al thought, more practically than those in Burkas. These showed their faces beneath head-scarves decorated with beads and chains and quite colourful too. These must be tribal mountain women, Al thought.
The coach was moving quite slowly and Al had a chance to take a couple of photographs through the window, of the valley below. He wished he had more film, but thought he would not be able to afford it.
Hellmut was quite jolly company and did lot of talking. They smoked another couple of joints.
He explained that he travelled this same route for years and the border post guards knew him. He always gave them a little money and they left him alone. He also said that every year he visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, India and Nepal, and arranged for shipments of hash to be sent back to London where his partner lived. He travelled for six months, then went back to London and his partner did the same. They were paying off customs everywhere, including the UK, and they were making a lot of money. But, he said, he preferred to stay in cheap hotels, not the big ones, and then he met people.
So Hellmut too, was heading for the Hotel Rainbow.
“Very very cheap”, he said, “But it is OK for a few days, but do not eat their food – it is better to go out to eat in a secret local restaurant that I know, it is good and clean.”
Hellmut said that after Peshawar, he was heading to Lahore and then would fly to Amritsar where the “Golden Temple” was and where travellers could sleep and eat for free, courtesy of the Sikhs. The same plan as Al and Keith's, they used to call it the “Hippy Trail.”
“Hey listen to this about the Khyber Pass man,” said Keith, who read again from his travel guide:
“The Khyber Pass is a mountain pass connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, and India cutting through the north-eastern part of the Spin Ghar mountains. An integral part of the ancient Silk Road, it is one of the oldest known passes in the world. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. The summit of the pass is about 3 miles inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal, about three thousand five hundred feet.
“The pass itself is entirely in Pakistan. The nearest major cities on the route that goes over the pass are Jalalabad in Afghanistan and Peshawar in Pakistan, with Torkham as border crossing point.
“For strategic reasons, after the First World War the British built a heavily engineered railway through the Pass. The Khyber Pass Railway from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened in 1925.
“At the Pakistani frontier post, travellers are advised not to wander away from the road, as the location is a barely controlled Federally Administered Tribal Area.
“Crossing the Khyber has always been something of an adventure. Even in peacetime, this was a fairly wild region where banditry and tribal warfare were part of local history and almost every adult male went armed. “
It was quite a journey until they reached Peshawar, but once there, with Helmut leading the way, they soon found and booked into the Rainbow Hotel. Reception gladly changed Afghani money into Pakistani Rupees.
The room for Al and Keith was small with two beds, but the view out of the window into the street below was good.
It was May 5 1972.
View from Rainbow Hotel, Peshawar