the known labyrinths were copied from the much older, worn carving
Two carvings of labyrinths in Rocky Valley, between Boscastle and Tintagel in north Cornwall, have been the subject of much discussion over the years, their origins variously ascribed to the Bronze Age, the early Christian period and even the 18th century. When an earth mysteries enthusiast visited the site, he took digital photographs of the two labyrinths. On returning home, he downloaded the photographs onto his computer and noticed a third carving above the two previously known rock-cut patterns. The hitherto unnoticed labyrinth is much fainter than the other two, leading to suggestions that the two bolder images were re-cut over existing carvings in relatively modern times. An alternative suggestion is that the two known labyrinths were copied from the much older, worn carving. All three labyrinths appear to be classic ‘Cretan’ in style, with seven-fold paths and left-handed entrances, although the ‘new’ carving is indistinct and its details somewhat difficult to establish. The recently identified labyrinth was described as “faint but unmistakable”.
A mosaic floor, one of the finest yet uncovered from the ancient world, has been found in the ruined city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. It dates from about AD 260 and shows the hero Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, killing a chimera. He is wearing a widerimmed Roman helmet with a red streamer and is flanked by two eagles bearing wreaths of victory. Unusually, he has trousers and an embroidered tunic, the costume of Palmyra’s Sassanian Persian neighbours, and an opensleeved coat of the sort worn by Palmyrene aristocrats. Dozens of late Roman pavements representing Bellerophon are known from the western provinces, but this is the only one found in the Near East. Soon the model would be borrowed by Christian painters to show St George slaying the dragon. St George was allegedly a Roman soldier martyred in Palestine in about AD 303 and the Bellerophon design provided a ready-made image to illustrate his emerging legend. The chimera represented Palmyra’s Sassanian attackers, who were defeated by Odainat, a local ruler in AD 259 in an otherwise disastrous struggle. After Odainat’s death in 267, his wife, the celebrated Zenobia, seized control of an area extending as far as Egypt, but was eventually captured by the Emperor Aurelian and imprisoned in a villa in Rome. A second panel in the mosaic, which measures some 30ft (9m) by 18ft (5.4m) but occupies only part of a grand dining room in a house on Palmyra’s main colonnaded street, shows a mounted archer dressed like Bellerophon shooting a tiger, while another is trampled by his horse.
The pattern on the stripes identifies them as Hyrcanian tigers, which until recently lived on the Persian shores of the Caspian Sea. They symbolise the defeated Sassanian enemy.
