Artania is a distant kingdom, a distant state. Where is the Far Far Away Kingdom What does the Far Far Away Kingdom mean in Russian fairy tales

Fairy tales are a unique phenomenon, a kind of collection of folk wisdom, transmitted to the younger generation in allegorical form.

But in addition to the instructive aspect, they seem to encode information about the world around them, in which the heroes have to overcome many obstacles.

For example, Ivan Tsarevich is often forced to go for Vasilisa the Beautiful "... to a faraway kingdom, a faraway state".

So let's find out: did it really exist and where is it located?

distant land

Stories about Mary the Artisan, Koshchei the Immortal, Ivan the Fool and Baba Yaga teach children not to give in to difficulties, to fight for their happiness, to always act according to their conscience. The action of these allegorical stories often takes place in some distant, different, magical land, where unprecedented miracles can occur, and animals speak with human voices. Of course, fairy tale geography is by no means an exact science, although sometimes one can find quite specific descriptions of the nature of the mysterious Far Far Away kingdom.

According to the generally accepted idea, the fabulous number "far away" is 27, because that's how much it turns out if 3 is multiplied by 9. And "thirty", respectively, is 30. That is, in fairy tales we are talking about a very distant country that you can get to if alternately cross 30 states, of which 27 are monarchies (kingdoms), and what form of government in the remaining 3 countries is unknown.

Someone always tells the hero the right direction: Baba Yaga, the Gray Wolf, a magic ball, etc. Often, on the way to the goal, Ivan Tsarevich (or the Fool) has to overcome various obstacles: insurmountable thickets, deserts, swamps or fiery rivers.

Just a month away

However, not all researchers believe that the Far Far Away kingdom is very far from Russia, since even there people speak the same language as the hero of the fairy tale. There is a version that the above-mentioned numbers 27 and 30 denote the duration of the lunar and solar months, which is exactly how much time it takes to travel on foot to the Far Far Away kingdom.

For example, the distance from the city of Murom to the capital city of Kyiv, if counted in a straight line, is 957 km. For the hero Ilya Muromets, such a road was not difficult.

Having no information about how people live in the neighboring principality, the ancient storytellers, endowed with remarkable imagination, could come up with magical or frightening images.

world of the dead

The most mystical version endows the distant kingdom with the properties of the world of the dead. The number "three" has always been considered magical, and even multiplied by 9 or even 10, it becomes a kind of pass to the next world, where all sorts of miracles are possible.

In this case, Baba Yaga appears to be someone like a guide to the afterlife. She herself partially relates to him, it is no coincidence that she has one leg - bone (that is, dead). And the hut on chicken legs is nothing more than a portal to another dimension, the border between worlds.

This version is supported by the fact that the hero ends up in a distant kingdom after Baba Yaga put him to bed, having previously evaporated in a bathhouse. That is, she prepared the body for the transition to the afterlife, washing it like a dead person.

On the moon

There is also a cosmogonic version of the nature of the distant kingdom. Proponents of this interpretation of fairy tales proceed from the fact that our ancestors encoded in them original messages to their descendants, containing amazing knowledge about the Universe and the solar system, in particular.

The fact is that the magical country we are looking for is not on Earth, but "... far away." Do you catch the difference? But what if we take the diameter of our planet as a basis? Since the Earth is an ellipsoid, its equatorial diameter is 12 thousand 756.2 km, and the polar one is slightly smaller - 12 thousand 713.6 km. The distance from the Earth to the Moon at its perigee (the closest point of the orbit to us) is 356 thousand 104 km, and at the apogee (when the satellite of our planet is the farthest) - 405 thousand 696 km.

This version explains why a magical, fairy-tale country is located either far away or thirty lands: after all, the planets are endlessly moving in their orbits, now approaching, then moving away from each other. And oddly enough, our distant ancestors could know about it. True, the source of their amazing awareness of the structure of the solar system is unknown.

hyperborea

Some researchers prefer to look for the distant kingdom not in space, but in time. They believe that the magical country known to us from fairy tales is the same Hyperborea that has sunk into the mists of time.

Judging by the legends of the ancient Greeks, the mysterious state located in the north could well be the birthplace of our ancestors. In his Centuries, the medieval French predictor Nostradamus more than once describes the historical events that took place in Russia, calling our country Hyperborea.

It is possible that this ancient state was destroyed during the Ice Age. For example, the Russian folk tale "Crystal Mountain" from the collection of A.N. Afanasyeva describes how the Far Far Away kingdom was half drawn into the inexorably advancing crystal mountain. And the hero saved his people and the princess (and how could it be without her?), having obtained a magical seed. After lighting this magical item, the crystal mountain, which is very similar to a glacier, quickly melted.

This tale, apparently, reflects the hopes of people to prevent a climate catastrophe, which may have destroyed the mysterious Hyperborea, and its inhabitants were probably forced to move a little further south.

So many different versions: from quite logical to mystical, from historical to fantastic. So where is the distant kingdom? Where heroes overcome obstacles and find their love, and good triumphs over evil.

Is this possible only in a fairy tale? That's the question.

Fairy tales are a unique phenomenon, a kind of collection of folk wisdom, transmitted to the younger generation in allegorical form. But in addition to the instructive aspect, they seem to encode information about the world around them, in which the heroes have to overcome many obstacles. For example, Ivan Tsarevich is often forced to go for Vasilisa the Beautiful "... to a distant kingdom, a distant state." So let's find out: did it really exist and where is it located?

distant land

Just a month away

If we take into account that a fairy-tale hero or hero is able to overcome about 40 kilometers in a day, then the magical country could well turn out to be a neighboring principality, because it was located about 1200 km from the starting point. For example, the distance from the city of Murom to the capital city of Kyiv, if counted in a straight line, is 957 km. For the hero Ilya Muromets, such a road was not difficult.

Having no information about how people live in the neighboring principality, the ancient storytellers, endowed with remarkable imagination, could come up with magical or frightening images.

world of the dead

On the moon

This is surprising, but 27 diameters of the Earth (thirty lands) is the distance from our planet to the Moon when it is at perigee, and 30 diameters of the Earth (thirty lands) is the distance from our planet to the Moon when it is at apogee.

This version explains why a magical, fairy-tale country is located either far away or thirty lands: after all, the planets endlessly move in their orbits, either approaching or moving away from each other. And oddly enough, our distant ancestors could know about it. True, the source of their amazing awareness of the structure of the solar system is unknown.

This is Hyperborea

Candidate of Biological Sciences B. KAZACHENKO (Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University).

Science and life // Illustrations

The Limburg brothers. “The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise”, 1415 - 1416.

Image of the number 30.

This is how the number 100 was depicted.

European (ancient Egyptian) finger counting by dozens of phalanges.

Old Russian account of Siberian fur trappers by knuckles.

The most complex is the Chinese finger counting system.

Old Russian method of multiplication on the fingers.

The abacus is the oldest counting device that replaced the finger count.

The very first counting instrument of the ancient caveman in the Upper Paleolithic, of course, were the fingers. Nature itself provided man with this universal counting tool. For many peoples, fingers (or their joints) served as the first counting device in any trading operations. For most of the everyday needs of people, their help was enough.

Many number systems go back to counting on the fingers, for example, fivefold (one hand), decimal (two hands), vigesimal (fingers and toes), forty (the total number of fingers and toes of the buyer and seller). For many peoples, the fingers of the hands remained for a long time a counting tool even at the highest levels of development.

In everyday life, we still use the count of small items “heel mi”: buttons, screws, large seeds, cucumbers, eggs, garlic, etc. In Tsarist Russia, gold coins were minted in denominations of 5, 10 and 15 rubles. (imperial).

However, in different countries and at different times they thought differently.

Despite the fact that for many peoples the hand is a synonym and the actual basis of the numeral “five”, for different peoples, with a finger count from one to five, the index and thumb can have different meanings.

For example, among Italians, when counting on the fingers, the thumb indicates the number 1, and the index finger marks the number 2; when the Americans and the British count, the index finger means the number 1, and the middle finger means 2, in this case the thumb represents the number 5. And the Russians start counting on the fingers, bending the little finger first, and end with the thumb indicating the number 5, while the index the finger was compared with the number 4. But when they show the number, they put up the index finger, then the middle and ring fingers.

When the ancient Egyptians performed magical counting, they held open palms in front of their faces, counting from the thumb of their right hand to the thumb of their left hand.

Northern European finger count allowed to show with the fingers of one hand, added in various combinations, all numbers from 1 to 100. Moreover, tens were depicted with the thumb and forefinger, and units with the other three.

For example, the number 30 was obtained when the thumb and forefinger of the left hand were connected into a ring. In order to depict the number 60, the thumb must be bent and, as it were, bowed in front of the index finger hanging over it. To show the number 100, it was necessary to press the straightened thumb from below to the index finger and move the other three fingers to the side.

According to the testimony of the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder, a giant figure of the two-faced god Janus was erected on the main Roman square - the Forum. With the fingers of his right hand, he depicted the designation adopted at that time in Rome for the number 300 (combining the thumb and forefinger into a ring), with the fingers of his left hand - 55 (bent large and middle). Together, this amounted to the number of days in a year in the Roman calendar.

The fact that in England the first ten numbers in the Middle Ages were called by a common name - “fingers”, confirms the prevalence of counting on fingers among the English. Apparently, it is no coincidence that in the old Russian numbering units were called “fingers”, tens - “joints”, and all other numbers - “calculations”.

Counting in pairs Until the middle of the 18th century, it always occupied an important place in the life of Russians, since it had a qualitative origin - a pair of arms, legs, eyes, etc. It was not for nothing that they said: “two boots - a pair”, “two hryvnia”, etc.

Usually, pairs were counted in all commercial transactions, in the sale of small wholesale eggs, apples or haberdashery. An individual measure of the consumption of portioned tea in a tavern was called a “tea pair”, and a trade measure of the necessary and sufficient amount of milk for an urban family living in Moscow in the 19th century was “a pair (jar) of milk”. A natural measure of distance associated with land surveying and foot measurements of Russian explorers was a double or “paired step” (equal to one fly fathom). In trade transactions with silk fabric brought from Turkey, the so-called Russian elbow (also referred to as a pair or “big elbow”) has always been used. The fact is that in those days the matter was prepared in the form of narrow strips, which were conveniently measured by winding it around the hand, starting from the bend of the thumb, wrapping it around the elbow and again pulling it up to the thumb. The length of a complete revolution of matter around the “elbow” gave a special unit of measure - “double elbow”, which came into use with us from the 15th century and was called “Russian elbow” or “arshin”.

Threes count appeared in Russia as a result of its contacts with Byzantium, the Golden Horde and Ancient China (derived from the personal pronouns “I”, “you”, “he”). This account did not take root with us, with the exception, perhaps, of the tradition of harnessing horses in a troika and the Orthodox custom of being baptized with three fingers. True, five-altyn coins with a denomination of 15 kopecks (which were also issued in the Soviet Union), six-kopeck altyn (three-kopeck coins equal to six money in Moscow or three copper kopecks in Novgorod) and chervonets in the form of three-ruble coins issued in Russia with 1701.

Fours count originated from the ancient - binary counting. The remnants of this number system can be traced in musical notation (for example, an octave is divided into two tetrachords), in the name of the Russian measure of liquids - “a quarter”, in dividing a year into four seasons, etc.

The quaternary counting system is based on the "fingers" of the hand, not counting the thumb. The big one is not a “finger” at all, it is “pales”! - in this number system it meant the end of the count, that is, it was the equivalent zero. By the way, in English the same four fingers are called the word “fingers”, and the thumb is called “thumb”, which corresponds to the Russian “dyb” or “rack” (literally: “standing behind” finger).

The number system of primitive people who drew sticks on the walls of the cave or made notches on animal bones and tree branches is not forgotten today. This is evidenced by the sergeant's stripes in the army or the number of sewn-on stripes on the sleeve of a cadet's uniform, corresponding to the course of study at a military university.

Finger counting in sixes practically never used in Russia. However, Ancient Russia got acquainted with the hexadecimal number system in the 11th-13th centuries in the northern Black Sea region through the so-called Byzantine account, in which the number “six” for some reason was the key one. A few words remained for us about those times: “six” or “shestak” (half a dozen or six pieces), “six-legged cubit” (54 cm) and a girl’s braid six fists long (“six-handed” or “six-handed” scythe), in one word “six-handled” in 12 inches (that is, “tops of the finger”).

Counting in eights is also based on finger counting and, in fact, is a combination of binary and quaternary systems. Elements of the octal system existed in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the eight-pointed cross, which was used by the Old Believers, and the eight-voice church singing, and the name of the Russian drinking measure - “octopus”, obtained as a result of a sequential threefold division in half. In Russian folk metrology, this is generally the division of any accounting indivisible measure (for example, a piece of arable land, a fathom or a bucket of wine) into parts corresponding to 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 shares.

The octal number system underlies all natural musical modes (octave) and was the only one until the appearance of the chromatic scale in the 18th century. The transition from the octal to the decimal system in Russia left a trace in the word “ninety” - an attempt to combine the eight- and decimal systems.

Finger nines count is perhaps the most common Russian folk way of multiplying on fingers using the so-called nines - a kind of multiplication table that indicates the nine-year periods of human life. Our ancestors in ancient times counted nines for some time (however, it seems that they still counted eights, and a new counting segment began with nine). Since then, at least seven to nine centuries have passed, but we still tremble before the formidable “ninth wave” or arrange a wake for the deceased on the ninth day after death.

By the way, “ninety” until 1398 was sometimes written as “ninety”. Let us also recall the popular fairy tale address where heroes traditionally set off for exploits: a faraway kingdom, a faraway state.

Dozens of counting arose about 3-2.5 thousand years BC in ancient Egypt. Having undergone minor changes, the ancient Egyptian decimal system first settled in the East (in India around the 6th century AD, better known as the Indian account), and then through a very active trade in the 11th-13th centuries reached the limits of Ancient Russia. From the Horde, Russia adopted the decimal number system for weight measurements and money counting, ahead of even Europe, which got acquainted with the decimal number system through the Arabs only in the 13th century, and learned it even later.

However, this number system finally took root in Russia along with the reforms of Peter I, which came to us from Europe.

Old Russian method of multiplication on fingers is one of the most common methods that Russian merchants have successfully used for many centuries. They learned to multiply single-digit numbers from 6 to 9 on their fingers. At the same time, it was enough to master the initial skills of finger counting in “ones”, “pairs”, “triples”, “fours”, “fives” and “tens”. The fingers here served as an auxiliary computing device.

To do this, on one hand they extended as many fingers as the first factor exceeds the number 5, and on the second they did the same for the second factor. The rest of the fingers were bent. Then the number (total) of outstretched fingers was taken and multiplied by 10, then the numbers were multiplied showing how many fingers were bent on the hands, and the results were added up.

Dozen count originates from counting along the phalanges of the fingers. At the same time, the thumb played the role of a counter, with the help of which the phalanges of other fingers were counted. Twelve is obtained if, for example, you start with the lower phalanx of the index finger and end with the upper phalanx of the little finger. Moreover, among different European peoples, the account of a dozen dozens (“gross”), five dozens, that is, “sixties”, and even a dozen grosses, that is, “mass”, has taken root in trade.

The duodecimal number system was once widespread among many European nations. The Swedish king Charles XII (the same one whom the Russian troops defeated near Poltava in 1709) tried to legitimize the score in dozens and grosses.

Until recently, here in Russia, it was customary to count certain items (for example, handkerchiefs, pens, pencils, school notebooks) by the dozen. Until now, forks, knives, spoons are sold in dozens, and tableware (tea and tableware) traditionally still consists of 12 sets. Furniture sets, until recently, certainly included 12 chairs or armchairs. We divide the year into 12 months, and the day into 24 hours, which in everyday life we still prefer to count 12 days and nights.

Sixties count has also been associated with finger counting. It first appeared among the Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC. in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) and then was adopted by the Babylonians, which is why it went down in history as the Babylonian number system. This method of counting was also present in ancient Russian measures of length (this, for example, is evidenced by the division of the Novgorod measured "elbow" for 60 notches).

In Ancient Russia (especially in the Novgorod Republic of the XII-XV centuries), an account was widely used, based on the number of phalanxes on the hand of the “accountant”. The account began with the upper phalanx of the “finger” (little finger) of the left hand, and ended with the lower phalanx (“bottom of the finger”) of the index finger. The big one, or “great pales”, of the left hand, at the same time, consistently “counted” the joints on the splayed heel. Having counted to twelve, the "accountant" turned to his right hand and bent one finger on it. This continued until all the fingers of the right hand were clenched into a fist (since the number of phalanges on four fingers was 12, it turned out 12 fives, that is, 60). The fist in this case symbolized the five dozen, that is, "sixty".

Echoes of the ancient sexagesimal number system still remain with us in the form of dividing the circle into 360 degrees (1 degree equals 60 minutes, a minute - 60 seconds). Following the example of the Babylonians in calculating time, we still divide the hour into 60 minutes, and the minutes into 60 seconds.

But the most surprising thing is that the traces of finger counting in sixties have survived almost to this day. A few decades ago, in the markets of Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states and Germany, one could meet sellers of eggs, apples, pears, mushrooms, etc., laying out their goods in cops - heaps, 60 pieces each.

Magpie count(or “magpies”) had a predominant distribution in Ancient Russia. The number 40 (four tens) has long been called "four" or "fourty". But eight hundred years ago, the name “forty” first appeared in holy and Orthodox Russia to designate this multitude. Scientists are still arguing where this word came from. Some believe that its origins are in the Greek name for the number 40 - “tessakonta”, others argue that it appeared when Russia paid tribute in “forties” (the annual Horde tax, equal to the fortieth part of the cash property). The third group of researchers is convinced that this word comes from the so-called fur money and the name "shirt". Therefore, our ancestors, for example, in the Russian North considered “magpies”, and their fellow Siberian hunters counted “shirts”, that is, bags for furs in which animal skins were stored (mainly 40 pieces of squirrel skins or 40 sable tails). , who went in the 16th century to sew one boyar fur coat, called a “shirt”).

The number 40 had a special meaning for us, for example, the forty-day periods mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, 40 pounds were contained in a pud, 40 buckets in a measuring barrel, 40 kosushki in a pointed bucket, etc.

The fact that the number 40 in Russia once played a special role in finger counting is also evidenced by some of the beliefs associated with it. So, the forty-first bear was considered fatal for a Russian hunter, to kill a spider meant to get rid of forty sins, etc. All that quantity, which exceeded a certain multitude (for example, “forty”), surpassing any imagination (“forty

Sorokov”) and did not fit in the head of the Russian tiller because of its unlimited size, was called in one word - “darkness”.

Strictly speaking, in Ancient Russia, darkness was also called the number 10,000 and the “great” number 1,000,000. There is no doubt that our ancestors were familiar with large numbers, for which special names were used: the number “darkness of ” (that is, a million million) was called “legion”, the number “legion of legions” was called “leodr”, “leodr of leodres” was called “raven”, and the number 10 49 was called “deck”. And only “the human mind cannot understand more than this,” that is, only for large numbers, Russians in the 17th century did not have names.

This calculation has its origins in counting the finger joints of Siberian trappers, who in this manner kept records of the total number of animal skins (“magpies”) subject to barter (exchange) for other goods. With the thumb of the right hand, used as a counter, the Siberian hunter counted each pair of joints on the four remaining fingers and, having thus counted eight units, bent one finger of the left hand. Obviously, the counting operation ended when all five fingers of the left hand were bent, which gave five eights, one "shirt" or the number "forty". In accordance with Russian folk ideas about the “arrangement” of the human body, the first two phalanges of the index finger were called the “top of the finger” (or “top”), the middle finger was called the “kutyrka”, and the little finger was called the “finger”. The very same lower phalanx of the finger was called the “bottom of the finger”, “root”, “root of the finger” or “root joint”, less often - “longitudinal joint”.

By the way, in the customs charter of 1586, for example, the skins of sables and martens presented to the Austrian Tsar Rudolf from Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich as payment for waging war with the Turks were counted as “magpies”.

Apparently, the number 40 has long been associated with the concept of “end of count” and sometimes served as the name of an indefinitely large set. It is no coincidence that in Russian the word “centipede” has always meant “centipede”. Moscow churches were also considered "magpies". Back in the 17th century, it was said that there were “forty forty churches” in Moscow, although in fact there were only about a hundred of them.

The human body, as a living calculating machine, turned out to be so closely connected with counting that in ancient Greek the very concept of “counting” was expressed by the word “five”. And in Russian, the word “five” used to mean the ability to “increase”, “multiply” or count by fives, in other words, the ability to count on the fingers.

The finger count, inherited from distant ancestors, has survived to the present and is actively used, for example, by a judge in a boxing ring when counting seconds during a knockout or at a commodity exchange somewhere in Chicago or Tokyo. Yes, and in everyday life he is not forgotten. And today we bend (and the Americans, on the contrary, unbend) our fingers, in a dispute, showing the opponent, for the sake of greater persuasiveness, the number of arguments in favor of our position.

Literature

Le Goff J. Civilization of the Medieval West. - M.: Progress Academy, 1992.

Gardner M. Mathematical short stories / Per. from English. - M .: Mir, 1974. Zorina Z. A., Poletaeva I. I. zoopsychology. - M., 2001.

History of mathematics from ancient times to the beginning of the nineteenth century: In 3 volumes / Ed. A.P. Yushkevich. - M.: Nauka, 1970. - T. 1.

Kliks F. Awakening thinking. - M., 1983.

Kolman E. History of mathematics in antiquity. - M., 1961.

Levy-Bruhl L. Supernatural in primitive thinking. - M., 1999.

McKusick V. A. hereditary traits of a person.- M .: Medicine, 1976.

Miklukho-Maclay N. N. Travels. - M .; L., 1940. - T. 1.

Rozin V. M. Introduction to cultural studies. - M., 1994.

In the traditional sense, a mummy is a dead body that has been preserved from decomposition by embalming.

The most famous mummies are ancient Egyptian, but the Aztecs, Guanches, Peruvians, Mayans, Tibetans and many others also used technologies to protect the bodies of the dead from decay. But far from all the mummies found on the planet are of man-made origin - sometimes they are kept incorruptible for centuries and millennia by chance.

When the remains can turn into a mummy spontaneously?

The transformation of the body of the deceased into a mummy without human intervention is called natural mummification, and, as a rule, environmental conditions play a major role in this process. The combination of dryness and high air temperature, high salt content in the soil and air, severely limited oxygen access to the body, frost and other factors can prevent the decay of the remains. In addition, while observing a certain lifestyle, including a special diet, some managed to achieve self-mummification - in particular, Buddhist monks sometimes resorted to this practice (but not always with a successful result). In the past, naturally mummified and self-mummified remains were sometimes declared miraculous, which in turn even gave rise to the cult of relics.

"Ice People"

Permafrost has preserved many objects that are significant for recreating the history of life on our planet - many well-preserved remains of prehistoric animals and plants were found here, as well as artifacts that helped to better understand how different peoples lived in ancient times. It is quite logical that in the conditions of permafrost, the bodies of people who died on glaciers are sometimes mummified - for example, climbers, whose remains were never found or evacuated. At the same time, some mummies are stored in ice for hundreds, and sometimes thousands of years.

So, in 1999, in Canada, hunters moving along a melting glacier in the territory of the Tatshenshini-Alsek provincial park discovered the mummy of an 18-19-year-old man who, according to radiocarbon analysis, lived about 300-550 years ago. It is one of the oldest well-preserved human remains found on the North American mainland. A number of artifacts were found with the mummy, including a squirrel-fur garment, a cloth hat, a spear, and various tools. The name of the find was given by members of the Indian communities of Champaign and Eishihik, historically living in this area. They named the "ice man" Kwadai Dan Shinchi, which literally translates as "A long time ago a man was found." It is noteworthy that relatives of the Canadian “ice man” still live among them today: a study of the DNA of volunteers from among these Indians revealed 17 people related to him through a direct maternal line.

Another ice mummy in the scientific community has made as much noise as the body of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen at one time. We are talking about the remains that tourists accidentally stumbled upon in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (the mummy received the name “Ötzi” from this toponym). Radiocarbon analysis has shown that its age is about 5300 years old - this is one of the oldest mummies ever found in Europe. Curiously, Ötzi's genome scientists found evidence that he suffered from lactose intolerance and Lyme disease, which until recently were considered diseases of modern civilization.

"Swamp People"

Peat is an effective natural substance that contributes to the conservation of any organic matter, including human remains. In peat bogs, moisture from organic matter evaporates extremely slowly, oxygen does not penetrate deeply into them, antiseptic and toxic substances in their layers hinder decomposition processes, a deficiency of mineral nutrients hinders plant activity, and besides, peat itself has a low thermal conductivity - all this creates an excellent environment for natural mummification.

Human remains, partially or completely preserved in peat bogs, are called "bog people", and most of them were found in the countries of Northern Europe. Swamp mummies differ from many other ancient remains in well-preserved internal organs (up to the contents of their stomachs) and skin, which makes it possible to determine with high accuracy how long they lived and how old they died, what they ate and what lifestyle they led. Some of them also had hair and even clothes, which helped to get a better idea of the historical costume and hairstyles of those years. Most of the “bog people” found lived about 2-2.5 thousand years ago, but the oldest of these mummies dates back to the 8th millennium BC. This is the so-called woman from Kölbjerg, who was discovered in Denmark in 1941. It is believed that at the time of her death she was about 20-25 years old, and her remains did not preserve evidence of a violent death, which may indicate that she drowned by accident.

Meanwhile, the Danish swamps still keep many secrets related to mummies - they will try to reveal the famous Egyptologist Remy Romani, who travels the world in search of stories related to the mysterious phenomenon of mummification.

"Salt people" and Tarim mummies

Salt is another powerful natural preservative. No wonder the process of embalming often included rubbing the remains with salt. Meanwhile, the salt mines themselves represent a favorable environment for natural mummification. In particular, in the mines of Chekhrabad in Iran in 1993, miners discovered the mummy of a man who lived about 1.7 thousand years ago. Thanks to the preserved long hair and beard, scientists even managed to determine his blood type. Eleven years later, another miner found a new salt mummy, and a year later, the bodies of two more men were found here. In total, six “salt people” were discovered in the mines of Chekhrabad, who lived in different periods: from the Achaemenid (550-330 BC) to the Sasanian (224-651), and the salt carefully preserved not only the bodies themselves, including their skin and hair, but also their skin and bone artifacts.

The combination of high salt content in the soil and arid climate has contributed to the mummification of the remains of many people found in the Tarim Basin in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The oldest of these mummies, called the Loulan Beauty, dates from around the 18th century BC. The first Tarim mummies were found at the beginning of the 20th century. The safety of most of the finds turned out to be phenomenal: despite their ancient age, the hair and skin of the mummies, as well as the clothes and various artifacts buried with them, did not have time to decompose. It is curious that some mummies have features of the Caucasian race.

self-mummification

It is possible to turn after death into a mummy without embalming not only with a successful combination of environmental conditions, but also by preparing your body for this in advance. At least, this confirms the experience of some Buddhist monks who practiced self-mummification - their imperishable remains are still revered as sacred by some Buddhists. This practice was especially widespread in Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan, where it was called "sokushimbutsu" (the meaning of the hieroglyphs 即身仏 forming this term: "quickly, urgently", "body, corpse" and "Buddha"). There is a version that the founder of the local Buddhist school Shingon-shu named Kukai brought it there from Tang China. Some monks resorted to sokushimbutsu until 1879, when the government declared this procedure to be assisting suicide and banned it. However, the sokushimbutsu practitioners themselves perceived it rather as a form of further enlightenment.

Far Far Away kingdom- “another, distant, alien, magical” land (country).

The expression "Far Far Away Kingdom, the Far Far Away State" is very often found in Russian folk tales as a synonym for the expression "very far away." The origin of the expression is due to the fact that in ancient Russia the word "land" was used, in particular, for a territory subordinate to one ruler (for example, the Rostov-Suzdal land is a territory subordinate to the princes who lived in the cities of Rostov and Suzdal). Thus, a hero who goes "to distant lands" must, in his wanderings, cross the corresponding number of sufficiently large territories and state borders located between them.

The natural background for the action of Russian myths was the habitual habitat (field, forest). As an opposition, an “Other”, alien, strange land was envisaged: Far Far Away Kingdom, Far Far Away State ... Initially, these were steppes, deserts, and often forests and impenetrable swamps and other fabulous obstacles (for example, rivers with fire) and the like.

The very origin of the term is as follows: in the old days they counted in threes, hence far away (three times nine) - twenty-seven, thirty - thirty.

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Spirits of the place

Mortgage dead

Mythical creatures

ritual characters

mythical places

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Notes: 1 the historicity of the deity is debatable; 2 divine status is debatable.

An excerpt characterizing the Far Far Away Kingdom

In the unfortunate, sobbing, exhausted man, whose leg had just been taken away, he recognized Anatole Kuragin. They held Anatole in their arms and offered him water in a glass, the rim of which he could not catch with his trembling, swollen lips. Anatole sobbed heavily. “Yes, it is; yes, this man is somehow closely and heavily connected with me, thought Prince Andrei, not yet clearly understanding what was before him. - What is the connection of this person with my childhood, with my life? he asked himself, finding no answer. And suddenly a new, unexpected memory from the world of childhood, pure and loving, presented itself to Prince Andrei. He remembered Natasha as he had seen her for the first time at the ball of 1810, with a slender neck and slender arms, with a frightened, happy face ready for delight, and love and tenderness for her, even more alive and stronger than ever, woke up in his soul. He remembered now the connection that existed between him and this man, through the tears that filled his swollen eyes, looking at him dully. Prince Andrei remembered everything, and enthusiastic pity and love for this man filled his happy heart.
Prince Andrei could no longer restrain himself and wept tender, loving tears over people, over himself and over their and his own delusions.
“Compassion, love for brothers, for those who love, love for those who hate us, love for enemies - yes, that love that God preached on earth, which Princess Mary taught me and which I did not understand; that's why I felt sorry for life, that's what was left for me, if I were alive. But now it's too late. I know it!"