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Thursday, February 18, 2016

Bogomil graveyard

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF POST-ANTIQUITY GNOSTICS: ABANDONED BOGOMILS GRAVEYARD. This field of half-buried stone crosses was the burial place of a sect of heretical gnostics (Kristo Pantera, Atlas Obscura).
Located near the small Greek town of Nea Chalcedon is an ancient graveyard, that has long since been pillaged for riches, but is still home to a beautiful collection of stone crosses established by a gnostic Christian sect.
It's been quite a while since I have mentioned the Bogomils, but they are of some interest, both phenomenologically, because of their medieval Gnostic religion, and because they were involved on some level with the transmission of the Slavonic Old Testament pseudepigrapha. On the latter point, see Grant Macaskill's essay The Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: An Introduction, written for a course on the Old Testament pseudepigrapha which he and I taught back in 2007. And there are many past posts on Old Church Slavonic: see here and links.

This Lovecraftian photo essay is a good excuse to mention the Bogomils again.