Читать книгу The Magic of Labyrinths: Following Your Path, Finding Your Center - Liz Simpson - Страница 8

The shaman believes that the world of the human and the world of nature are essentially reflections of each other.

STANLEY KRIPPNER, “THE POWER OF PLACE”

Much of what is out there about the history and development of labyrinths is more conjecture than fact. While we know a certain amount about the “what,” “where,” and “when,” we can only come up with our own interpretations of the “who” and the “why.” What follows is a potted history – a sort of labyrinth time-line that puts this into some sort of context.

There are any number of “firsts” attributed to the application of labyrinths around the globe. Jacques Attali writes that the oldest known graphic representation of a labyrinth is carved on a piece of mammoth ivory found in a Paleolithic tomb in Siberia (older than 5000B.C.). Labyrinth historian, W.H. Matthews, refers to one of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World – the Egyptian labyrinth, tomb of Amenemhet III, as the earliest known labyrinth structure, built over 4,000 years ago. And British maze designer, Adrian Fisher, points to a rock carving of a sevencircuit labyrinth at Luzzanas in Sardinia as being possibly the world’s oldest surviving labyrinth (c. 2500–2000B.C.).

The seven-circuit labyrinth at Luzzanas, Sardinia, may be the world’s oldest surviving labyrinth.

Certainly, as Attali points out, the labyrinth symbol has been found on Neolithic figurines discovered near Belgrade in Yugoslavia, at the ruins of Kunlani near Madras in India and on a block of granite in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. Plus, one of the designs produced by the Yombas of Mauritania (an Islamic Republic between Senegal and Western Sahara, Africa) describes a giraffe alongside a labyrinth in which a bird is being mesmerized by a snake.

Regardless of where the labyrinth concept originated, this symbol has captured the imagination of cultures worldwide. Navigating their way through turf mazes – unicursal labyrinths cut into grass – was a popular game for Roman children. Indeed, many British examples still in existence have been found to have been sited close to Roman encampments and major Roman roads. This is the case at Alkborough, South Humberside, where there is a 44ft diameter turf labyrinth known as “Julian’s Bower.” One correspondent, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, recalls how he and his school friends would run in and out of the labyrinth as part of their May Day celebrations. While no one knows exactly when it was constructed, it is believed to have been built before 1671. However, there are many turf labyrinths throughout Britain that predate that. At Boughton Green in Northamptonshire there was one known as the “Shepherd’s Ring” or “Shepherd’s Race” whose “treading” was a key feature of the village’s June fair – an event dating back to the middle of the fourteenth century. This tradition of cutting a labyrinth pattern into hillsides also became a common custom of Welsh shepherd boys who tended their flocks alone on the mountains and may have offered them some light relief from a tedious occupation. Among the general population in earlier times, these turf mazes were often given the epithet “Troy Towns.”