Vela Supernova Remnant

The Vela Supernova

The Dancing Fire

"In our galaxy, about 1,300 light years away and 12,300 years ago, a supernova exploded in the constellation Vela, forming the Gum Nebula. People on earth saw the explosion about 11,000 years ago as a star of magnitude -10, as bright as a 7-day old Moon. Now we on earth see the remnants as a shell with radius about 1,000 light years, covering 30 to 60 degrees in the sky. (The sun and moon each cover about half a degree.)"
     - Kaufmann - Universe (4th ed) - Freeman 1994

The Vela supernova most likely occurred 6,000 years ago (although estimates range from 5,000 to 11,000 years). At a distance of 1,300 light years from earth the Vela X pulsar is three to four times closer than the Crab Nebula. The supernova would have hung low on the horizon over the Mediterranean, a brilliant star shining as bright as the moon (-12.5 losing brightness at 4.5% per day). Due to defects in the cornea of the eye, a person viewing the supernova would see spikes a quarter to a third the diameter of the full moon (7.5 to 9 minutes of arc). It would appear as an endlessly dancing, varying mass of fire, shooting spears of intense color every way like a fountain. The landscape and the observer would be flooded with pulsing illumination. Tossed flocks of shadow bands would animate the landscape, moving eerily through forest and town.
     - Sources include Science Digest, Mar '81

A wall sized mural uncovered at Tell Ghassul, which was occupied from before 4000 BC to circa 2000 BC, "depicted a row of people - the first two of whom were seated on thrones - facing toward (or greeting) another person who had apparently stepped out of an object emitting rays.
"The archaeologists who had discovered these murals during the 1931-32 and 1932-33 excavations theorized that the rayed object might have been similar to a most unusual rayed 'star' found painted in another building. It was an eight-pointed 'star' within a larger eight-pointed 'star,' culminating in a burst of eight rays. The precise design, employing a variety of geometric shapes, was artistically executed in black, red, white, gray, and combinations thereof; a chemical analysis of the paints used showed that they were not natural substances but sophisticated compounds of twelve to eighteen minerals.

Cylinder seal impression showing star

"The mural's discoverers assumed that the eight-rayed 'star' had some 'religious significance,' pointing out that the eight-pointed star, standing for the planet Venus, was the celestial symbol of Ishtar. However, the fact is that no evidence of any religious worship whatsoever, no 'cult objects,' statuettes of gods, etc. had been found at Tell Ghassul, yet another anomaly of the place."
"This, we suggest, indicates that it was inhabited not by worshipers but by those who were the subject of worshipping: the 'gods' of antiquity, the Anunnaki."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, The Wars of Gods and Men

"Vela" is derived from the Spanish verb velar, to watch. The Akkadians who followed the Sumerians spoke of the Land of Shumer - which meant the Land of the Watchers.

The star burst was recorded by the Sumerians (as researched by Michanowsky) and coincides with the "date of creation" circa 4,000 B.C. It was recorded as the "giant star of the god Ea in the constellation of Vela of the god Ea."
     - from Science Digest, Mar '81

Enki/Ea/Oannes - The Bringer of Civilization

"According to Timothy Ferris (Thoth, and may have represented it by the Great Pyramid at Giza."
     - Tony Smith, "13 March 1941"

The Egyptian ankh, used in the rite of reanimation, may also symbolize the supernova.

"...The organization of the cosmos parallels the organization of an estate with its varied tasks. In the myth called 'Enki and World Order" we hear how Enki organized the cosmos for Enlil in just such terms. He instituted the regime of the Euphrates and the Tigris, appointed the god Enbilulu as divine 'inspector of canals', and he arranged the marshes and the sea, appointing divine officials to take charge of them. Next he organized the rains and put Ishkur in charge. There followed the instituting of agriculture: ploughing, irrigation, and harvesting, the appointment of the farmer god Enkimdu and the grain goddess, Ezinu. After agriculture came brickmaking and the builder's craft under the brick god, Kulla, and the divine architect, Mushdama; and in similar manner Enki organized the wild life of the desert, founded husbandry, fixed boundaries, set limits for building plots and fields, and instituted weaving - in each case appointing appropriate gods to the offices of supervision.
"The god whom Enki place in charge of boundaries was the sun god Utu, god of justice, and the universal scope of his responsibilities is underlined in the myth by the words 'for heaven and earth'."
     - Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness

"I brought craftsmanship to my Aspu [engendering clay of the deep] (of) Eridu,
I am the true seed emitted by a great wild bull,
I am the foremost son of An,
I am the great storm (clouds) rising out of the netherworld,
I am the great good manager of the country,
I am the irrigation officer for all the throne-daises,
I am the father of all lands,
I am the older brother of the gods,
I make abundance perfect."
     - from Bernhard and Kramer, "Enki und die Weltordnung":

Even archaic Egypt was to fall under the influence of Sumerian civilization of the Uruk period, three millenia before the beginning of the Common Era.

Related Sites

13 March 1941 Images, info and links on the Vela supernova and related subjects Sumerian-English Dictionary Translations provided by Adapa (Dan Sullivan) History of the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia Overview of important time periods, famous city names, dynasties, terminology

Hyperlinks

·Lovecraft's Necronomicon
·The Watchers