Red and Red Hair in the Megalithic Empire

Came across a brief mention of red hair in 'The Megalithic Empire.' An excellent book that I'll be reviewing shortly on my other blog.

"Red dye, Kermes (Hermes) red or Carmine red, was made from the kermes beetle, a parasite of the holly oak (= kermes oak). Carmenta was a Roman goddess who had the remarkable, but in Megalithia all too common, dual role of being the patron saint of midwives and inventor of the Latin alphabet. There seems to have always been a widespread prejudice against red-haired wet nurses, underlining an association between carmine and witchery (as in charm and karma)."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Megalithic-Empire-The-M-Harper/dp/0954291115

Timur/Tamerlane had Red Hair

I'm currently reading Fomenko's 'Chronology IV' (history revisionism at its finest). In it he mentions that the famed ruler Timur, historically known as Tamerlane, had red hair. He quotes an eminent scientist named M. Gerasimov who examined the supposed corpse of Timur. He stated;

"Timur's hair is thick and long, reddish-grey in colour, dark brown and red being the dominating shades...Timur's beard had been short and thick. It's hairs are rough, almost straight, and rather thick; their colour is red, with a great deal of grey."

Apparently historical sources describe Timur as red-haired as well, but this had been thought incorrect as Timur is generally believed to have been Oriental/Mongolian. Incidentally Fomenko contests this, believing him to be European.

Now I'm going to read Christopher Marlowe's play 'Tamburlaine the Great' to see if red hair pops up in that. I've been meaning to read it for a while now but have never gotten round to it. This has inspired me.

Red Hair Could Make You More Susceptible To Illness

Spanish scientists have just published research linking red hair with increased cell damage. They carried out a study on wild boars and found that those with reddish coats had more cell damage than those with duller coats. The research also suggested that grey hair could be a sign of good health.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2176368/How-grey-hair-sign-good-health--redhead-make-susceptible-illness.html

The study suggests that the production of red pigment is to blame. Pheomelanins, which produce red and 'rich chestnut' hues, require a chemical called glutathione (GSH). This chemical is also an antioxidant. The suggestion is that producing red pigment uses up the GSH leaving less to work their antioxidant magic.

Yet more bad press for redheads!

Red Hair and British Israelism

Came across a few mentions of red hair on Wikipedia's page about British Israelism;

"British Israelites often quote the ethnological work of Assyriologist Archibald Sayce who discovered from ancient artwork and tablet descriptions in Palestine, that the Amorites (Akkadian: Amurru) were a pale skinned, blue eyed, red haired race. Flinders Petrie also wrote they were fair haired."

And;

"Apocryphal historical texts are also often cited which describe Jesus as golden or red haired, these include the Description of Jesus by Publius Lentulus which describes the hair of Jesus as chestnut (reddish-brown) and his eyes bright blue[.]"

The Redhead Blog

Following my previous post I should also mention that the Redhead book has its own website - here. And on the website its own red hair blog too - http://iancookauthor.co.uk/#/blog/4557830424.

The blog mentions that the artist Paul Gauguin featured red-haired natives in his Tahiti paintings. Something I wasn’t aware of until I read it. There’s a good picture of one of the paintings on the blog. Along with some striking images of red-haired mummies.

[No doubt I’ll be keeping an eye on the blog, as there’ll probably be plenty of stuff I can thieve, magpie-like, to fuel my own nefarious interests!]

Redhead - Ian Cook

I’ve just finished reading a book called Redhead by Ian Cook. As the title suggests the focus is red hair and people with it. It was really good. Very esoteric and full of information about red hair. A lot of it I wasn’t aware of.

The book’s a fictional thriller and begins with a journalistic investigation into the ritual murder of redheads that’s started taking place around the globe. Redheaded journalist Rebecca Burns is both the investigator and the focal point of these strange happenings and her journey takes her to North Africa, Easter Island and eventually to the Neolithic monuments of Scotland.

The book was excellent and I fully recommend it. Especially to anyone interested in red hair.

Given the supernatural, historic (I should have mentioned earlier that the book implicates Cleopatra, Seth and Horus, and ancient Egypt in the redhead story) and scientific themes of the book I’ll be interested to see how it’s received. I mentioned in one of my previous posts about the modern mythologizing of red hair. I can’t help but feel that this is continuing apace and this book seems to have caught the zeitgeist pretty well. In fact, it might end up being a case of life mirroring art (hopefully without the human sacrifice bit though!). I hope this book ends up being widely read. It’ll be fascinating to see if people start borrowing from it and blurring the line between life and fiction - a la the whole Da Vinci Code/Mary Magdalene thing.

Erythrism

I came across the word ‘erythrism’ for the first time recently. It means;

“unusual redness of plumage or hair, often with a ruddy complexion in humans”

It derives from the Greek word eruthros meaning ‘red.’

When checking the dictionary I also came across the Erythraeans;

“of ancient Erythrae: relating or belonging to the ancient city of Erythrae in Turkey, or, formerly, to the group of Hamito-Semitic languages spoken in the region of Erythrae”

I don’t suppose these guys were red-haired, but it might be worth checking out. The ‘red’ in the name probably relates to the land or something I would imagine, but you never know. Worth bearing in mind for the future maybe.