DINDIGUL -DISTRICT-OTTAN CHATHTHIRAM MAP

EMERGENT COPY APPLICATION

                            IN THE COURT OF THE JUDICIAL MAGISTRATE, NILAKKOTTAI

                                             

                                                                                                          Copy  Application No.             /2014

                                                                                                                                In

                                                                                                            Cr.M.P           No.        /2014

                                                                                                                                In

                                                                                                            C.C./Cr          No         /2014

                                   1.smith raaj

                                   s/o seran                                                                                              Petitioner/ Accused/3rd party/injured

                                                                       

Vs

State through the                                                                                                                     Respondent/ Complainant

S.I. of Police____________________________

__________ P.S. in. Cr. No

                                                   EMERGENT COPY APPLICATION

It Is Prayed That This Honourable Court May Be Pleased To Order To Issue The Certified Copy Of The Following Which Is On The File Of This Honourable  Court and thus render justice.

                   

                                                                 1.  FIRST INFORMATION REPORT

                                                                 2.  CHARGE SHEET

                                 3.  WOUND CERTIFICATE

                                 4.  ACCIDENT REGISTER

                                 5.  M.V.REPORT

                                                                 6.

                                 7.

Place ;                                                                                                                                                      ADVOCATE

Date  ;

Here with Enclosed ___Ns Copy Stamp Papers

THE MALAWI- LAKE KILWA

Kilwa

Kilwa is a World Heritage Site and has the best preserved ancient Swahili buildings in Tanzania. This area was developed in the 12th to the 15th Century and became the greatest trading port along the East African coast. This ancient settlement was once hailed as ‘one of the most beautiful of cities’.

Kilwa is of great historical interests and scenic beauty. The town of Kilwa as such is divided into three different towns - Kilwa Kivinje, Kilwa Masoko and Kilwa Kisiwani. Kilwa Masoko is the most developed town and the regional hub. A colourful market is held daily on the square at Kilwa Masoko. Men in white robes and women in black buibuis gather under the mango trees to barter fresh produce and a variety of goods; whilst Kilwa Kivinje and Kilwa Kisiwani have spectacular historical attractions. 

Kilwa Kisiwani is an island reached by dhow and has an amazingly well preserved collection of ruins. On arrival as you sail from the mainland the most striking sight is the old Omani Fort, which is built on the foundations of an old Portuguese fort. The Big Mosque dates from the 12th Century and was once the largest mosque in East Africa. The Sultans palace is located directly south of the mosque and contains four graves. The small mosque dates from the 15th Century is still in use today. The large complex of walls in the west of the island is called "Makutani" and contains a palace from the 18th Century, another Sultanas palace, and a mosque from the 15th Century. All the way to the east of the island there are the ground walls of the "Husuni Kubwa", once the largest building in tropical Africa.

  

Local guides give tours of the ruins and dhows can be arranged from the small jetty on the mainland. The site is quite spread out and you can easily spend a whole day walking around all the ruins. 

Kilwa Kivinje was an ancient Arabian slave and ivory trading town, where caravans departed for expeditions to the interior. When the Germans assumed control at the end of the 19th Century, the colonial government built a fort and extended the town. Today you can still find a Market Hall, the Fort, and two pillars commemorating the one for the dead of the Maji Maji War.

The Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park is a collection of diverse habitats ranging from mangroves along the estuary mouth to mudflats to coral reefs and white sands. There is good diving available here and coast line is just idyllic.

The river estuaries and large mangrove swamps provide a perfect habitat for a wide variety of birds. These areas are used for feeding and breeding of waterfowls. Some of the more common birds to be found include: Sandpipers, Herons, African Storks, Fish Eagle, Kingfishers, Oyster Catchers and Hawks. Fruit bats can also be found feeding and roosting around Kilwa; with Hippos and crocodiles to add to the adventure as they also live close to where the rivers enter the mangrove swamps.

Fishing behind the reefs and in the bay make for an excellent big game fish opportunity; maybe the best along the East African Coast is found here.

SECRET HAVING PLACES-WONDERFULNESS

                            SECRET HAVING PLACES-WONDERFULNESS

Everyone has heard of the Bermuda Triangle and the mysteries that surround it. Theories about this area range from reasonable to just plain ridiculous, but whether you believe it’s the site of time warps, alien abductions, or just plain paranoia, it certainly abounds with strangeness. It’s not the only place you can find creepy things happening, however—here are 10 other places on Earth with their fair share of mysteries:

 1.  Superstition Mountains-Superstition-Mountains 3614 990X742

The Superstition Mountains are a mountain range located east of Phoenix, Arizona. Already it’s off to a great start with the name.

According to legend, sometime in the 1800s a man named Jacob Waltz discovered a huge goldmine within the mountains that has since been dubbed the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine (because Waltz was German, and eh, close enough). He kept the location a secret until his deathbed, upon which he may or may not (depending on which version of the story you’re reading) have told a single person the secret. Regardless, the mine has never been found, in spite of many expeditions. Some say the spirits of people who’ve lost their lives in search of the gold still haunt the mountains.

One reportedly Native American legend goes that the treasures of the mountains are guarded by creatures called Tuar-Tums (“Little People”) that live below the mountains in caves and tunnels. Some Apaches believe that the entrance to hell is located in the mountains. This is, of course, ridiculous, as we all know the entrance to hell is in Sunnydale.

2.   South Atlantic Anomaly-200710 Saa

Did you ever wonder if there was a Bermuda Triangle in Space? No? Well you’re probably wondering it now, and you’re in luck! Because there totally is, and it’s called the South Atlantic Anomaly. The SAA is the area where the band of radiation known as Earth’s inner Van Allen belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface.

It’s an area centered just a bit off the coast of Brazil, and it’s responsible for numerous problems with satellites and spacecraft, from messing up their programs to actually shutting down their function. The Hubble Telescope is actually turned off from taking observations when passing through the Anomaly, and the International Space Station avoids scheduling spacewalks when passing through it (which happens up to 5 times a day). It’s not just technical problems, either—some astronauts report seeing “shooting stars” in their visual field as they pass through.

The cause of all these problems isn’t fully understood. The main suspect is the high levels of radiation that accumulate at the anomaly, but scientists aren’t sure exactly how or why the effects occur. So let’s just pin this one on aliens.

3.  Lake Anjikuni-Colville-River-Alaska-1901-Usgs

Not content with just a few individuals disappearing, Lake Anjikuni decided to take things to the next level and provide the locale for the disappearance of an entire village. It all happened in November 1930, when a trapper named Joe Labelle was looking for shelter for the night. Labelle was familiar with the Inuit village, whose population ranges from 30-2000, depending on who you believe. He made his way there and found quite an eerie scene—the villagers were nowhere to be found. Everything else, including food and rifles, had been left behind.

Labelle telegraphed the RCMP and an investigation began. In the Village Burial Ground it was discovered that at least one (sources vary) grave had been opened, clearly not by animals, and emptied. Furthermore, about 300 feet from the village, the bodies of around 7 sled dogs were found, having starved to death despite open stores of food at the village. Some versions of the story even report strange lights being seen above the lake around the time of the disappearance.

So what really happened? There have been all sorts of claims about the cause for the disappearance, including aliens (of course), ghosts, and even vampires. The RCMP’s own website disregards the story as an urban legend, but with so many versions of it floating around from so many years ago, it’s hard to be certain. Except about the vampires, I think we can be certain it wasn’t vampires.

4.The Devil’s Sea-U6Xde8Yhxv

The Devil’s Sea (or Dragon’s Triangle, take your pick of which sounds more ominous) is an area of the Pacific Ocean as riddled with strange happenings as its Atlantic counterpart near Bermuda. Located off the coast of Japan, it’s been the site of countless claims of unexplained phenomena including magnetic anomalies, inexplicable lights and objects, and of course, mysterious disappearances. The area is even considered a danger by Japanese fishing authorities.

One story has it that in 1952 the Japanese government sent out a research vessel, the Kaio Maru No. 5, to investigate the mysteries of the Devil’s Sea. Naturally, of course, the Kaio Maru No. 5 and its crew of 31 people were never seen again. Another story tells of Kublai Khan’s disastrous attempts to invade Japan by crossing the Devil’s Sea, losing at least 40 000 men in the process.

The usual theories abound for what’s really going on: from aliens, to gates to parallel universes, even to Atlantis (because why not). Some suggest that high volcanic activity in the region is responsible for some of the disappearances (the Kaio Maru No. 5 may have been caught in an eruption). Our advice? Just stay out of the ocean, period.

5. Bigelow Ranch-Ftduchesne2002-1A

Bigelow Ranch (formerly known as Skinwalker Ranch and Sherman Ranch) is a 480-acre property in northwest Utah that is home to countless UFO sightings, animal mutilations, and other strange occurrences. Though mysterious happenings have been documented since the 50’s, some of the most bizarre stories happened to a pair of ranchers named Terry and Gwen Sherman after they bought it in 1994.

The first day they moved on to the property, they saw a large wolf out in the pasture. They even went to pet the wolf as it seemed tame (to the curious reader, yes, this is always a good idea). It was docile with the Shermans, but ended up grabbing a calf by the snout through the bars of its enclosure. When Terry shot at the wolf with a pistol, the bullets had no effect. It finally left after Terry brought out the shotgun, though even that didn’t do any actual damage. The Shermans tried tracking the wolf, but it’s tracks stopped abruptly as if it had vanished.

And that wasn’t the end of things. The Shermans were constantly plagued by such events as UFO sightings, intelligent floating orbs (reputed to have incinerated three of their dogs), inexplicable cryptids, and gruesome cattle mutilations. It got so bad that the Shermans actually sold their ranch to Robert Bigelow in 1996, the founder of the National Institute for Discovery Science, who wanted to study the mysteries surrounding the ranch. Bigelow owns the ranch to this day and NIDS keeps a tight lid on their findings.

6.Point Pleasant-Silver

Point Pleasant was probably aptly named at one point, but it is now so shrouded in tales of mysterious and creepy events as to be nothing but an ironic alliteration. The most famous of these events involves a creature known as Mothman, who reputedly terrorized the small West Virginia community from November 1966 to December 1967. Over a hundred different citizens of Point Pleasant are eyewitnesses to this creature, a 7-foot tall broad chested man with hypnotic, glowing red eyes, and wings that stretch 10 feet long and drag behind him on the ground.

The Mothman, who’s been the subject of both a book and a movie (and who has his own statue in Point Pleasant), has many possible explanations. Some believe him to be an extraterrestrial, others a mutant or a cryptid, and some suggest the people of Point Pleasant were actually being scared by owls or a Sandhill Crane. Whatever the case, reports of Mothman stopped after the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967, killing 46 people and leading many to believe that the two events were somehow connected.

In addition to Mothman, several other paranormal tales from Point Pleasant include UFO sightings and reports of so-called “Men In Black”—human looking creatures who unnerve others by the sheer abundance of peculiarities in their speech, appearance, and mannerisms. These “men” supposedly appear looking for information about the paranormal (or rather, people who have this information).

7.Michigan Triangle-4561213366 402X233

The Michigan Triangle is another geographical triangle, located in the middle of Lake Michigan. It, too, is the site of mysterious disappearances of both land and sea craft. Some of the more famous ones include:

Captain Donner: On April 28, 1937, Captain George R. Donner of the O.M. McFarland was on his way from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Port Washington, Wisconsin, and had to pass through the triangle. As the story goes, he was exhausted and retired to his cabin, leaving the second mate to wake him when they neared their destination. About three hours later, when the second mate went to do so, Donner was not in his cabin. Nor was he in the galley. An exhaustive search of the ship was conducted, but he was never found.

Flight 2501: On June 23, 1950, Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 was on its way from New York to Minneapolis at the hands of experienced pilot Robert C. Lind, and was carrying 58 passengers. Due to bad weather, when the flight was near Chicago it changed course and turned over Lake Michigan. Around midnight, Lind requested permission to drop altitude from 3500 ft to 2500 ft, without ever specifying a reason. His request was denied, and that was the last communication Flight 2501 ever had. It’s last known position was supposedly within the Michigan Triangle.

While sources vary as to what amount of wreckage of Flight 2501 has been found (some say nothing, whereas others specify assorted floating debris such as seat cushions and the like), it seems clear that the plane crashed into the water. Mysterious, however, is that the plane was in perfectly good condition and in capable hands at the time of the disappearance. What’s more, despite searches still being conducted annually, neither the body of the plane nor complete human remains have ever been recovered.

8.  San Luis Valley-San Luis Valley Original

San Luis Valley, in southern Colorado, is an area high in inexplicable phenomena including UFO sightings and hundreds of unexplained farm animal mutilations. UFO sightings are so common that a woman named Judy Messoline has even set up a UFO watchtower on her property, which has witnessed over 50 UFO sightings since 2000 alone. Some of these are observed by dozens of people at a time.

For the UFO skeptics out there, far more chilling are the tales of animal mutilations from the region. They began in 1967, with a horse named Snippy. Snippy was found one morning with her brain missing, and her neck bones completely cleaned. Since then, hundreds if not thousands of inexplicable animal mutilations have occurred in the region, sharing several things in common—firstly, there is never a trace of blood around the animals, and secondly, the animals are all damaged with precise cuts, distinctly not the work of predators. Finally, all of the mutilations happen overnight to otherwise healthy creatures.

Investigations into the incidents haven’t wielded any results, yet they continue to this day. Some farmers report seeing strange lights in the sky the nights before finding a carcass, leading some to believe that extraterrestrials are involved. Though it’s hard to imagine aliens caring so much about farm animals in Colorado, the alternative isn’t much more appealing—that humans are the so-called “Phantom Surgeons of the Plains”. Personally, I’d rather it was aliens.

9.  Bennington Triangle-33-Geo11

Oh look, another triangle. This one is found in southwestern Vermont, and is the site of a string of 5 mysterious disappearances between 1945-1950, related in no way but geographic location. These include:

Middie Rivers, 75 years old, was out leading a group of hunters on November 12, 1945. On their way back, he got ahead of his group and was never seen again. Only a single rifle shell found in a stream was recovered as evidence.

Paula Welden was an 18 year old sophomore of Bennington College who was out hiking on December 1, 1946. She never returned and no trace of her was ever found.

Exactly 3 years later, on December 1, 1949, a veteran named James E. Tetford was taking a bus back to his home at the Bennington Soldier’s Home, returning from a visit with relatives. Witnesses saw him on the bus the stop before this, but when the bus arrived at his destination he was nowhere to be seen. His luggage was still on the bus.

Eight year old Paul Jepson disappeared on October 12, 1950, while his mother was busy feeding the pigs. Despite having a highly visible red jacket, none of the search parties formed were able to find the boy.

The last disappearance was a woman named Frieda Langer. On October 28, 1950, she was hiking with her cousin on Glastenbury Mountain when she slipped in a stream. She decided to go back quickly and change her clothes, and, if you’ve been paying attention so far, you’ll surmise that she was never seen again. Well, not exactly—she’s the only victim whose body was ever recovered, though it was only found on May 12, 1951 (about 6 months later), in an area that had been thoroughly searched after her disappearance. The body was in such a mangled shape that no cause of death could be determined.

Though many theories abound, including aliens, bigfoot-like monsters, or some unknown serial killer, there’s one thing we know for sure: it’s a good idea to stay the hell away from triangles.

10. Bridgewater Triangle-Hili

No, seriously—stay away from triangles. Especially this one. The Bridgewater Triangle, an area of about 200 square miles in Southeastern Massachusetts just south of Boston, is like an all you can eat buffet of the supernatural.

Among other things, the area has been subject to numerous cryptozoological sightings. Since the 1970’s there have been several reports of tall, hairy, ape-like creatures roaming the swamp. There have also been numerous sightings of Thunderbirds, giant Pterodactyl-like creatures that have been seen fighting in midair. In 1976 there was a report of a man who saw a giant, ghostly, red-eyed dog rip the throats out of two of his ponies.

Besides these cryptids, there have been numerous reports of mutilated animals (mainly cows and calves) in the region. Some credit these mutilations to satanic cults, but no one has come forward and no one even knows where the animals came from.

As if all this weren’t enough, the Bridgewater Triangle is a hotbed of UFO sightings, dating all the way back to 1760, when a “sphere of fire” was reportedly seen hovering over New England. Since then there have been numerous sightings of unexplained objects in the sky—including mysterious black helicopters. One from 1976 describes two UFOs landing along Route 44 near the city of Taunton, and another from 1994 recounts a strange triangular object with red and white lights seen by a Bridgewater Law Enforcement Officer. In 1908 on Halloween night, two undertakers who were traveling to Bridgewater noticed in the sky what looked like a “giant lantern”. They watched it for almost 40 minutes before it disappeared.

Bermuda isn’t looking so bad anymore.

Michael Alba has a skeptical fascination with the supernatural. Thanks…Twitter @MichaelPaulAlba.

                                                  Bermuda Triangle

Researchers attempt to determine what has caused hundreds of planes to mysteriously disappear in what is known as the Bermuda Triangle.

                The Bermuda Triangle is a mythical section of the Atlantic Ocean roughly bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico where dozens of ships and airplanes have disappeared. Unexplained circumstances surround some of these accidents, including one in which the pilots of a squadron of U.S. Navy bombers became disoriented while flying over the area; the planes were never found. Other boats and planes have seemingly vanished from the area in good weather without even radioing distress messages. But although myriad fanciful theories have been proposed regarding the Bermuda Triangle, none of them prove that mysterious disappearances occur more frequently there than in other well-traveled sections of the ocean. In fact, people navigate the area every day without incident.

Legend of the Bermuda Triangle

The area referred to as the Bermuda Triangle, or Devil’s Triangle, covers about 500,000 square miles of ocean off the southeastern tip of Florida. When Christopher Columbus sailed through the area on his first voyage to the New World, he reported that a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about erratic compass readings, perhaps because at that time a sliver of the Bermuda Triangle was one of the few places on Earth where true north and magnetic north lined up.

Did You Know?

After gaining widespread fame as the first person to sail solo around the globe, Joshua Slocum disappeared on a 1909 voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to South America. Though it’s unclear exactly what happened, many sources later attributed his death to the Bermuda Triangle.

William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” which some scholars claim was based on a real-life Bermuda shipwreck, may have enhanced the area’s aura of mystery. Nonetheless, reports of unexplained disappearances did not really capture the public’s attention until the 20th century. An especially infamous tragedy occurred in March 1918 when the USS Cyclops, a 542-foot-long Navy cargo ship with over 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese ore onboard, sank somewhere between Barbados and the Chesapeake Bay. The Cyclops never sent out an SOS distress call despite being equipped to do so, and an extensive search found no wreckage. “Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship,” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson later said. In 1941 two of the Cyclops’ sister ships similarly vanished without a trace along nearly the same route.

A pattern allegedly began forming in which vessels traversing the Bermuda Triangle would either disappear or be found abandoned. Then, in December 1945, five Navy bombers carrying 14 men took off from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airfield in order to conduct practice bombing runs over some nearby shoals. But with his compasses apparently malfunctioning, the leader of the mission, known as Flight 19, got severely lost. All five planes flew aimlessly until they ran low on fuel and were forced to ditch at sea. That same day, a rescue plane and its 13-man crew also disappeared. After a massive weeks-long search failed to turn up any evidence, the official Navy report declared that it was “as if they had flown to Mars.”

Bermuda Triangle Theories and Counter-Theories

By the time author Vincent Gaddis coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in a 1964 magazine article, additional mysterious accidents had occurred in the area, including three passenger planes that went down despite having just sent “all’s well” messages. Charles Berlitz, whose grandfather founded the Berlitz language schools, stoked the legend even further in 1974 with a sensational bestseller about the legend. Since then, scores of fellow paranormal writers have blamed the triangle’s supposed lethalness on everything from aliens, Atlantis and sea monsters to time warps and reverse gravity fields, whereas more scientifically minded theorists have pointed to magnetic anomalies, waterspouts or huge eruptions of methane gas from the ocean floor.

In all probability, however, there is no single theory that solves the mystery. As one skeptic put it, trying to find a common cause for every Bermuda Triangle disappearance is no more logical than trying to find a common cause for every automobile accident in Arizona. Moreover, although storms, reefs and the Gulf Stream can cause navigational challenges there, maritime insurance leader Lloyd’s of London does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an especially hazardous place. Neither does the U.S. Coast Guard, which says: “In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.”

The Bermuda Triangle

Learn more about the Bermuda Triangle mystery with our interesting facts, secrets, history and theories. Are the reported ship and aircraft incidents and disappearances related to some kind of supernatural force or have the mysterious stories been exaggerated?Perhaps science can offer some answers, maybe the Bermuda Triangle is actually no different from other parts of the ocean. Enjoy our facts and information and decide for yourself. Located in the Atlantic Ocean, the Bermuda Triangle falls between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Florida.The Bermuda Triangle has long been believed to be the site where a number of mysterious plane and boat incidents have occurred. While it has become part of popular culture to link the Bermuda Triangle to paranormal activity, most investigations indicate bad weather and human error are the more likely culprits. Research has suggested that many original reports of strange incidents in the Bermuda Triangle were exaggerated and that the actual number of incidents in the area is similar to that of other parts of the ocean. While its reputation may scare some people, the Bermuda Triangle is actually part of a regularly sailed shipping lane with cruise ships and other boats also frequently sailing through the area. Aircraft are also common in the Bermuda Triangle with both private and commercial planes commonly flying through the air space. Stories of unexplained disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle started to reach public awareness around 1950 and have been consistently reported since then.    Unverified supernatural explanations for Bermuda Triangle incidents have included references to UFO’s and even the mythical lost continent of Atlantis.   Other explanations have included magnetic anomalies, pirates, deliberate sinkings, hurricanes, gas deposits, rough weather, huge waves and human error. Some famous reported incidents involving the Bermuda Triangle include:

The USS Cyclops and its crew of 309 that went missing after leaving Barbados in 1918.

The TBM Avenger bombers that went missing in 1945 during a training flight over the Atlantic.  A Douglas DC-3 aircraft containing 32 people that went missing in 1958, no trace of the aircraft was    ever found.    A yacht was found in 1955 that had survived three hurricanes but was missing all its crew.

OLD GREEK COIN -2100 YEAR

2,100 year-old Greek coin may have marked rare astronomical event

 

New research suggests that this coin marks an eclipse of Jupiter by the moon.
It happened on January 17, 121 BC and was visible in Antioch, the capital of
the Seleucid Empire.  The coin itself show Zeus with a crescent moon above his head and
a star like object hovering above the palm of his right hand.  

An unusual Greek coin, minted around 120 BC, may have marked a moment in time when people in ancient Syria saw Jupiter being blocked out by the moon.

On one side is a portrait of Antiochos VIII, the king who minted it. On the reverse is a depiction of Zeus, either nude or half-draped, holding a sceptre in his left hand.  Above the god’s head is the crescent of the moon, and his right arm is outreached with a star like figure (that may in fact be Jupiter) hovering just above his palm.

“Nobody ever re-used this iconography again – it was a one off,” said Professor Robert Weir, of the University of Windsor in Canada, who presented his research recently at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. 

Antiochos VIII was ruler of the Seleucid Empire, a kingdom created by one of Alexander the Great’s officers, after the great conqueror died in 323 BC. By the time of Antiochos this realm was composed of a rump of territory centred on the city of Antioch, in south-eastern Turkey.

The empire had been in decline for some time, with the Parthians gaining territory in the east, the Romans in the west and the Hasmoneans, a dynasty of Jewish kings, coming to power in the south.

Antiochos’s rise to the throne was brutal to say the least. His mother was a woman named Cleopatra Thea, and he started his rule having to share the throne with her. “She was a very oppressive, domineering sort of woman as far as we can gather,” said Professor Weir. “She had just killed his brother for no good reason.”

Perhaps fearing for his own life Antiochos VIII had her put to death in 121 BC, making him sole ruler of what was left of the Seleucid kingdom. 

Why the cosmic iconography?

Weir is a Classics professor with an interest in astronomy and ancient coins. He was curious why Antiochos VIII would mint a piece of currency with such an unusual drawing – could there have been something going on in the night sky?

“I did some calculations to see what was visible from Antioch, the capital of the Seleucid Empire – I came up with some interesting patterns.” Weir found that on January 17, 121 BC, the city’s residents would have seen Jupiter blocked out by the moon, an event modern day astronomers call an “occultation.”

Also “Jupiter, when it was eclipsed by the moon, was in the constellation of Cancer, which is a very significant constellation,” he said. “This means that there might be a great king coming, or being born – in Syria, because Cancer governs that part of the world the ancient astrologers believed.”

That wasn’t all that was going on in the night sky.

“I noticed that there were other favourable occultations happening at the same time. There was another occultation of Jupiter within the year and just a week after the first one there was an occultation of Venus which is also a very good omen,” he said.

Antiochos VIII, a king ruling a shrinking empire alongside his murderous mother, may have felt that the heavens were finally with him. “It was significant in a good way – an occultation of Jupiter has to do with omens for kings.”

Weir pointed out that astrologers were powerful figures in the ancient world and the discipline they practiced was influential. “These people were everywhere and we know they were influential in influencing emperors in Rome for instance,” he said.

“I think it’s fair to say they probably had a foot in the door in the court of the Seleucids.”

The heavens turn against him

Unfortunately for Antiochos VIII his rule would be anything but great. In the years that followed his empire would endure conflict, with one of his brothers, Antiochos IX, disputing his right to the throne. Eventually the two had to agree to divide what was left of the Seleucid kingdom.

In the meantime the king’s run of cosmic good luck had come to an end. Weir said that “a few years after he killed his mom there were (all) sorts of really bad luck eclipses of Mars and Saturn.”

Even worse, shortly before the coin stopped being minted, around 114 BC, “something happened in the heavens that happens only once every 2,000 years or so,” he said. “The moon eclipsed Mars and Saturn at the very same time.” An event “that’s about the worst omen you can get.”

The heavens, it seemed, had turned against the king.