A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Since ancient times, people have constructed mazes. They were created in countless geometric variations, which are complex and intricate. Mazes and labyrinths have been found on artifacts from the ancient world; from the Bronze Age in Ireland and Spain, to India to North Africa and in the American Southwest.
A fascinating ‘Pebble Labyrinth’ was found on an uninhabited Weir Island, the Gulf of Finland in 1838.
This labyrinth stone layout called 'Weir labyrinth' has the diameter of the outer circle measures only some 6 cubits (2.7 meters), or somewhat more, and the stones are only 5–8, or at most 10, inches thick. Was it just a spontaneous work of some seafarers?
‘... I would not have hesitated for a moment to see here the work of idle seafarers waiting for a wind... if I had not remembered seeing the same shape, much more extensive and built with larger blocks, in a ravine in Lapland near the village of Ponoi..' wrote scholar Dr. Karl Ernst von Baer, when he saw the Weir Labyrinth.
Both maze and labyrinth depict a complex and confusing series of pathways, but they are different.
A maze is a complex, branching puzzle that includes choices of path and direction, while a labyrinth has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center. A labyrinth, which is not designed to be difficult to navigate, has a single through-route with twists and turns but without branches. It has only one entrance and that is also the exit.
There is just one path from the entrance to the center.
A maze is a confusing pathway; it is a puzzle that has many branches, choices of path and dead-ends and can be designed with various levels of difficulty and complexity. It also has different entry and exit points.
The earliest labyrinths particularly those mentioned by classic writers are those discovered on Crete and in Egypt
On the island of Sardinia, in the town of Luzzanas, there is a very ancient rock carving depicting a labyrinth and it dates back to 3000 BC and the Syrian labyrinths drawn on potsherds during 1,000 BC and many others found in Scandinavian islands can be traced to the Megalithic period.
Later, the fascinating labyrinth idea was adopted and developed further by the Christian Church in the Middle Ages.
Undoubtedly, this ancient magic symbol was of particular importance and there is a reason to believe that this figure has been known to people for a very long time.
See also:
Secrets Of The Spiral Symbol Left By Ancient Civilizations
Secrets Of The Scarab – Ancient Sacred Symbol In Human History
"It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [you are] not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning." — Plato
Coins from Knossos with depiction of labyrinth, c. 400 BCE. Photo by Tilemahos Efthimiadis
A 2,000-year-old square labyrinth has been discovered in Gedimedu, a village 16km from Pollachi, Tamil Nadu state, India. With a complicated network of paths, labyrinths have been a fertility symbol associated with many cultures.
They represent a unique pattern of consciousness and have been used as a meditation tool and a wish-fulfilling symbol since the Neolithic period.
The Gedimedu square labyrinth measures 56 feet X 56 feet and is the second largest ever discovered in India. Interestingly, its pattern is the same seen on the Greek Pylos tablets. The labyrinth's inner walking space varies from 2.6 feet to 3.6 feet and its old name is Seven Round Fort. The entrance is towards the east and the pattern is the same that we see on the clay tablet from Pylos in Greece.
Backside of a clay tablet from Pylos bearing the motif of the labyrinth/wikipedia
Some of the labyrinths were discovered during the Neolithic period, namely Luzzanas (2,500 BC) in the island of Sardinia.
Our ancestors created mazes and labyrinths but we do not know why these mazes and labyrinths appeared independently all over the world.
Oldest known labyrinth design about 1200 BC on the back of a book-keeping tablet found at Pylos in Greece. Credits: Jeff Saward/labyrinthos.net
Herodotus, a Greek historian wrote in the 5th century, on the complex and intricate architectural construction - a labyrinth, when he described an ancient Egyptian labyrinth: ‘…the Pyramids likewise surpass description, but the Labyrinth surpasses the Pyramids." Also, the Roman historian, Pliny, wrote about ancient labyrinths – mysterious masterworks frequently encountered across Europe and North Africa.
Question is: what does a labyrinth or a maze mean? Is it a message, a communication signal, a symbol of beauty or confusion, or perhaps both?
Solving the ancient mystery of labyrinths has not been an easy task for scholars, but there are speculations, hypotheses, and even science-based set of theories and all of them can be considered as helpful in solving the ancient mystery of labyrinths and mazes.
Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer
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